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<p>Universal Credit (UC) new claim advances provide access to a payment for those
in financial need, which can be accessed on the same day, until their first UC payment
is due. Claimants can access up to 100% of the total expected monthly award, for which
they can pay back over a period of up to 12 months.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has
taken a number of steps to ensure that advances meet the needs of claimants and that
recovery arrangements are personalised and reasonable. The maximum rate of deductions
cannot normally exceed 40 per cent of the Universal Credit standard allowance and
does not reduce other components of an award, such as money paid for children, housing
or when someone is caring for a severely disabled person. From October 2019 this will
be reduced to 30 per cent and from October 2021 we are increasing the maximum recovery
period for advances from 12 to 16 months.</p><p> </p><p>However, the Government recognises
the importance of safeguarding the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt, so
last resort deductions can be applied to protect vulnerable claimants from eviction
and/or having their fuel supply (gas/electricity) cut off, by providing a last resort
repayment method for arrears of these essential services. In these cases, when it
is considered to be in the best interests of the claimant and their family, deductions
may be taken above the 40 per cent limit.</p><p> </p><p>If a claimant is in financial
difficulty as a result of the level of deductions being made they can contact the
Department to request that a reduction in deductions be considered.</p><p> </p><p>The
latest available data for eligible claims to UC Full Service is provided in table
1:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Table 1</p></td><td colspan="3"><p>Month Payment
Due</p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Feb-17</p></td><td><p>Feb-18</p></td><td><p>Feb-19</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>
</p></td><td><p>%</p></td><td><p>%</p></td><td><p>%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>up to
20 percent of Standard Allowance</p></td><td><p>42%</p></td><td><p>49%</p></td><td><p>47%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>between
21 and 30 per cent of Standard Allowance</p></td><td><p>20%</p></td><td><p>19%</p></td><td><p>18%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>31
to 40 per cent of Standard Allowance</p></td><td><p>35%</p></td><td><p>31%</p></td><td><p>33%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>over
40 percent of Standard Allowance</p></td><td><p>3%</p></td><td><p>1%</p></td><td><p>2%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p> </p><p>Notes</p><p>1. The latest month for which data is available is February
2019.</p><p>2. When categorising claims into the groups above, the figures for the
percentage of the Standard Allowance for individual claims have been rounded to the
nearest percent.</p><p>3. Deductions include advance repayments and all other deductions,
but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than
deductions.</p><p>4. A claim can have more than one type of deduction applied to a
given payment e.g. the total deduction could be the total of both an advance repayment
and another deduction type.</p><p>5. Figures are for Universal Credit Full Service
only; Universal Credit full service was fully rolled out by the end of 2018.</p>
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