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<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>
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