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<p>Internal Management information shows that in April 2019, 280,000 payments of Universal
Credit (UC) had a deduction applied to repay a non UC debt owed to the Department
for Work and Pensions (DWP), and 340,000 payments of UC had a deduction applied to
repay a Tax Credit debt (these figures have been rounded to the nearest 10,000). Some
payments of UC may have had a deduction for both a non UC debt and a Tax Credit debt.
These claimants would appear in both totals, therefore the figures cannot be summed.</p><p>
</p><p>In line with the deductions policy in UC, for both types of debt, the deductions
would not usually exceed the maximum amounts, which are set out legislation. Only
in cases where last resort deductions are applied can these rates be exceeded. DWP
ensures that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect claimants who have deductions
from their benefit to repay overpayments. If a claimant is struggling they can contact
DWP’s Debt Management to discuss lowering their repayment rate.</p><p> </p><p>It is
also worth noting that it is not possible to provide this as a proportion at April
2019, as the latest UC caseload data is only available as of 14 February 19. However,
for context, as of 14 February 19, 1.4m households received payments of UC.</p><p>
</p><p>N.B. This data on deductions has been sourced from internal management information.
It should therefore not be compared to any other similar data subsequently released
by the DWP.</p>
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