AI-pocalypse Britain’s welfare system is experimenting with AI to manage Universal Credit claimants – even as evidence piles up that artificial intelligence may soon be pushing more people onto benefits in the first place.
The Department for Work and Pensions is exploring chatbot-style digital assistants to support Universal Credit claimants, with Permanent Secretary Sir Peter Schofield telling MPs the technology could eventually become part of frontline welfare support.
Officials believe automated tools could help claimants navigate applications, training options, and employment support while easing pressure on human work coaches stretched by rising caseloads.
“We want to be able to focus our work in a more tailored way so that the people who don’t need the interaction with a work coach potentially, in due course, could be able to have an interaction with a digital tool that prompts them, freeing up our work coaches for the people who most need it,” Schofield said.
Universal Credit isn’t just for unemployed people; it also covers low-income workers, disabled people, and those who can’t work full-time. Dragging AI into that ecosystem suggests automation may end up doing double duty by reshaping employment, then helping government handle the fallout.
Schofield’s comments come after UK businesses reported an 8 percent net reduction in jobs linked to AI adoption over the past year, according to Morgan Stanley, the sharpest decline among major developed economies.
Meanwhile, the government is expanding its AI partnerships to help citizens navigate the changing labor market. Officials recently announced that the government will work with model developer Anthropic on AI-powered tools to provide career advice and job search guidance, part of a broader effort to position automation as both the cause of disruption and its solution.
Forecasts suggest the challenge may only grow. Forrester reckons that AI and automation could wipe out more than 10 million jobs in the United States by 2030, with administrative, clerical, and junior professional roles sitting closest to the chopping block. The numbers are US-focused, but few expect the trend to stop at the Atlantic.
Inside government, officials are already weighing more radical responses. Investment minister Lord Jason Stockwood recently told The Financial Times that universal basic income (UBI) is being discussed as a possible safety net for workers displaced by AI, warning that automation is likely to create socially “bumpy” transitions.
UBI is not official policy, but its consideration suggests ministers are questioning whether retraining programs and digital job matching tools alone will be sufficient.
If the idea ever makes it off the Whitehall whiteboard, the welfare journey risks becoming oddly circular: lose your job to AI, explain that problem to AI, get career guidance from AI, and, if ministers’ quieter contingency planning ever becomes reality, potentially receive income support designed to soften the blow from AI in the first place. ®