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1056846

	registered interest
	date	07/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has conducted an impact assessment on the change in policy from live service universal credit to full service universal credit on the automatic ending of claims after a zero award.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow North West
	tabling member printed	Carol Monaghan
	uin	218338
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2019 answer text <p>In both Live Service and Full Service, if a Universal Credit award is reduced to zero, for example as a result of increased earnings, then the Universal Credit award will end.</p><p> </p><p>However, on Live Service if a claimant’s Universal Credit ended because earnings had reduced their award to zero and they subsequently had a change of circumstances that meant Universal Credit would become payable e.g. their earnings dropped, they would return to the same assessment period without having to make a new claim. This is as long as they made contact within 6 months of their previous award ending.</p><p> </p><p>On Full Service, if a claimant’s Universal Credit award ended and they met certain conditions, they will also return to the same assessment period, however, they will need to make a new Universal Credit claim within 6 months of their previous award ending. This new claim is quicker and easier than the one they originally made, as they will only have to tell the department about any changes of circumstances which they have experienced since their previous award ended.</p><p> </p><p>Claimants who become unemployed in a Full Service area also have to make a new claim within 7 days of their job ending (or have a good reason for not doing so) in order for them to be paid for the whole of the assessment period to which they return. If they do not, they will only receive a payment from the point they made their Universal Credit claim until the end of that assessment period.</p><p> </p><p>The changes between Live and Full Service were made for a variety of reasons including:</p><p> </p><ul><li>to simplify the process and allow the vast majority of claimants who have short term breaks in entitlement to Universal Credit to return to the same assessment period rather than just those whose Universal Credit had ended because they had entered work;</li><li>to reduce the possibility of overpayments being made; and</li><li>to ensure claimants re-engage with conditionality as quickly as possible after their job has ended.</li></ul><p>An equality analysis was produced for this change.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 218337 question first answered 13/02/2019 16:40:51 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 101520 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4443 label Biography information for Carol Monaghan

1056845

	registered interest
	date	07/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons her Department's policy changed from live service universal credit to full service universal credit to end a claim after one month of zero award.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow North West
	tabling member printed	Carol Monaghan
	uin	218337
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2019 answer text <p>In both Live Service and Full Service, if a Universal Credit award is reduced to zero, for example as a result of increased earnings, then the Universal Credit award will end.</p><p> </p><p>However, on Live Service if a claimant’s Universal Credit ended because earnings had reduced their award to zero and they subsequently had a change of circumstances that meant Universal Credit would become payable e.g. their earnings dropped, they would return to the same assessment period without having to make a new claim. This is as long as they made contact within 6 months of their previous award ending.</p><p> </p><p>On Full Service, if a claimant’s Universal Credit award ended and they met certain conditions, they will also return to the same assessment period, however, they will need to make a new Universal Credit claim within 6 months of their previous award ending. This new claim is quicker and easier than the one they originally made, as they will only have to tell the department about any changes of circumstances which they have experienced since their previous award ended.</p><p> </p><p>Claimants who become unemployed in a Full Service area also have to make a new claim within 7 days of their job ending (or have a good reason for not doing so) in order for them to be paid for the whole of the assessment period to which they return. If they do not, they will only receive a payment from the point they made their Universal Credit claim until the end of that assessment period.</p><p> </p><p>The changes between Live and Full Service were made for a variety of reasons including:</p><p> </p><ul><li>to simplify the process and allow the vast majority of claimants who have short term breaks in entitlement to Universal Credit to return to the same assessment period rather than just those whose Universal Credit had ended because they had entered work;</li><li>to reduce the possibility of overpayments being made; and</li><li>to ensure claimants re-engage with conditionality as quickly as possible after their job has ended.</li></ul><p>An equality analysis was produced for this change.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 218338 question first answered 13/02/2019 16:40:51 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 101519 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4443 label Biography information for Carol Monaghan

1056843

	registered interest
	date	07/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many full service universal credit claimants have had their claims stopped each month due to a zero award.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow North West
	tabling member printed	Carol Monaghan
	uin	218335
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2019 answer text <p>Below are the number/proportion of Universal Credit Full Service claims by the month of closure:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Closure Month</p></td><td><p>Number of claims closed due to zero award</p></td><td><p>As percentage of monthly caseload</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>September 2018</p></td><td><p>9,300</p></td><td><p>1.0%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>October 2018</p></td><td><p>11,800</p></td><td><p>1.1%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p> </p><p>Claim closed count rounded to the nearest 100 and the percentages to nearest 0.1%</p><p>Where the claimant had not confirmed their address prior to the case being closed, it has not been possible to exclude a small number of UC cases from Northern Ireland.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 218334 question first answered 13/02/2019 16:26:07 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 101517 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4443 label Biography information for Carol Monaghan

1056842

	registered interest
	date	07/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of full service universal credit claimants have had their claims stopped each month due to a zero award.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow North West
	tabling member printed	Carol Monaghan
	uin	218334
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2019 answer text <p>Below are the number/proportion of Universal Credit Full Service claims by the month of closure:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Closure Month</p></td><td><p>Number of claims closed due to zero award</p></td><td><p>As percentage of monthly caseload</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>September 2018</p></td><td><p>9,300</p></td><td><p>1.0%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>October 2018</p></td><td><p>11,800</p></td><td><p>1.1%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p> </p><p>Claim closed count rounded to the nearest 100 and the percentages to nearest 0.1%</p><p>Where the claimant had not confirmed their address prior to the case being closed, it has not been possible to exclude a small number of UC cases from Northern Ireland.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 218335 question first answered 13/02/2019 16:26:07 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 101516 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4443 label Biography information for Carol Monaghan

1037899

	registered interest
	date	08/01/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2018 to Question 130822 on Universal Credit, how many universal credit claimants have a level of deduction from the standard allowance (a) at the 40 per cent and (b) above the 40 per cent level.
	tabling member constituency	High Peak
	tabling member printed	Ruth George
	uin	206457
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2019 answer text <p>Our internal data shows that, of all Universal Credit Full Service awards in September 2018:</p><p> </p><p>(a) 7% (60,000 claims) of all Universal Credit Full Service eligible* claims had deductions at 40% of the Standard Allowance.</p><p> </p><p>(b) 0.6% (5,000 claims) of Universal Credit Full Service eligible claims had deductions that exceeded the normal 40% maximum deduction rate. These are due to last resort deductions which are only applied to protect claimant welfare by helping prevent disconnection or eviction (for example, service charges, rent, gas or electricity arrears).</p><p> </p><p>*Eligible claimants are claimants that have satisfied all the requirements of claiming Universal Credit; they have provided the necessary evidence, signed their claimant commitment and are eligible and have received their first payment.</p><p> </p><p>These figures do not include sanctions or fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions. In these cases, a priority order is applied so that deductions for arrears of housing costs or fuel costs are applied first, in order to protect claimant welfare. Volumes are rounded to the nearest 1,000.</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>At Autumn Budget 2018 we announced we will reduce the maximum rate at which deductions can be made from a Universal Credit award from 40% to 30% of the standard allowance, from October 2019. Additionally, from October 2021, the recovery period for advances will increase from 12 to 16 months. This will help over 600,000 families to manage their debts at any one point when roll-out is complete, providing them with, on average, £295 extra a year as their debts are repaid over a longer period.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 13/02/2019 15:16:20 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 94875 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4662 label Biography information for Ruth George

1056655

	registered interest
	date	07/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Fife
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the roll-out of universal credit in Fife on provision of services for lone parents and disadvantaged families by (a) local authorities and (b) third sector organisations.
	tabling member constituency	Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath
	tabling member printed	Lesley Laird
	uin	218361
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2019 answer text <p>We have not made an assessment of the effect of the roll-out of universal credit in Fife on provision of services for lone parents and disadvantage families by Local Authorities and third party sector organisations.</p><p> </p><p>We are committed to helping parents into work. Childcare is essential in enabling parents to work, although we recognise that this can cause additional financial difficulty.</p><p>Universal Credit claimants are able to claim up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs, compared to 70% on the legacy system. People with an offer of paid work can also get childcare costs paid a month in advance.</p><p> </p><p>On 11 January 2019, Secretary of State Rt. Hon Amber Rudd MP announced measures that will provide increased support for Universal Credit (UC) claimants. This included piloting a more flexible approach to claimants reporting childcare costs, which will allow people to be reimbursed for childcare even when they aren’t able to provide immediate evidence.</p> answering member constituency North Swindon answering member printed Justin Tomlinson question first answered 13/02/2019 14:07:55 answering member 4105 label Biography information for Justin Tomlinson previous answer version 101521 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4660 label Biography information for Lesley Laird

1056680

	registered interest
	date	07/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will place in the Library a copy of the results from the Claimant Service and Experience Survey 2017-18 for (a) live service and (b) full service universal credit claimants.
	tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
	tabling member printed	Frank Field
	uin	218202
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2019 answer text <p>The Claimant Service and Experience Survey 2017-2018 covered both Universal Credit Live Service and Universal Credit Full Service and has been published on Gov.uk.</p><p> </p><p>It is available at the following link: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-claimant-service-and-experience-survey-2017-to-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-claimant-service-and-experience-survey-2017-to-2018</a></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 13/02/2019 12:49:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 101514 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

1029311

	registered interest
	date	20/12/2018
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether trade unions and the Trade Union Congress have been consulted on the managed migration of universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	High Peak
	tabling member printed	Ruth George
	uin	204628
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/02/2019 answer text <p>The Trade Union Congress and some individual trade unions responded to the Social Security Advisory Committee report on the draft Universal Credit Managed Migration Regulations 2018 and we actively consult with trade unions and the Trade Union Congress.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Department is working with a diverse group of around 80 stakeholder organisations, including Trade Union representation, to ensure the widest possible range of insights are played into the design of Universal Credit Managed Migration. This group will evolve over time as we work with different stakeholders at different stages in the process.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 11/02/2019 17:38:50 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 94118 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4662 label Biography information for Ruth George

1046101

	registered interest
	date	22/01/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her speech entitled, Universal Credit: personal welfare, delivered on 11 January 2019, if she will publish the evidential basis for 60 per cent of payments to couples claiming universal credit are paid into the woman’s bank account.
	tabling member constituency	Oxford East
	tabling member printed	Anneliese Dodds
	uin	211352
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/02/2019 answer text <p>The requested information has been published and can be accessed at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gender-of-bank-account-holders-on-universal-credit" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gender-of-bank-account-holders-on-universal-credit</a></p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 06/02/2019 16:33:00 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 97887 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4657 label Biography information for Anneliese Dodds

1024812

	registered interest
	date	13/12/2018
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Overpayments
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims have been incorrectly calculated resulting in an overpayment.
	tabling member constituency	Livingston
	tabling member printed	Hannah Bardell
	uin	202142
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2019 answer text <p>Our internal data from the last full financial year, 2017/18, shows that around 6%* of the individuals that were on Universal Credit at some point during the financial year 2017/18, were overpaid and were referred to Debt Management for the recovery of these overpayments. This figure includes fraud, claimant error and official error overpayments.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>* The percentage figure has been calculated by dividing the number of Universal Credit claimants who were overpaid and referred to Debt Management for the recovery of an overpayment, by the number of individual claimants that were on Universal Credit at some point during the financial year 2017/18. Not all of the claimants would have been in payment.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 05/02/2019 14:36:20 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 92643 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4486 label Biography information for Hannah Bardell