Dr. Fiona Dukelow:

To pick up on that point, part of the black box is how people experience the system. In a way, we do research around the edges. It is notable that the mid-term review for the roadmap for social inclusion mentioned that lived experience research came up quite strongly in their public consultation and they were going to look into it more. That would be a welcome area where more research should be done both by the Department and in terms of research projects with the academic community as well. Another type of research that would be really useful and would tell us a lot is longitudinal research. That would be really valuable in giving us more information on what is happening to people's lives if they are claiming welfare.

There were a couple of specific questions, one on the graph I included on the rise in expenditure on illness, disability and caring and on why there is an upward trend. There are probably multiple reasons. I do not believe it is connected with long Covid. The biggest area is disability payments. There are probably many reasons why expenditure is rising in that sphere.