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1199428

registered interest
date	02/06/2020
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to restart checks on work-related conditionality requirements for Universal Credit claimants; and what factors will be considered when deciding to restart such checks.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL5027
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2020 answer text <p>We took the decision to temporarily suspend the requirement for face-to-face Jobcentre Plus appointments for all claimants in Universal Credit, New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), old-style JSA and ESA, and Income Support.</p><p> </p><p>Arrangements after the suspension will be communicated in due course.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 24/06/2020 14:00:19 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1204230

registered interest
date	16/06/2020
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government what proportion of Universal Credit recipients are subject to the (1) two-child benefit limit, and (2) benefit cap, broken down by ethnic group.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL5787
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/07/2020 answer text <p>The Department cannot precisely quantify the proportion of households by ethnic group that are affected by these policies since recording of ethnicity on benefits administrative data is voluntary and, as such, not sufficiently reliable.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 07/07/2020 15:01:12 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1200339

registered interest
date	03/06/2020
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 2 June (HL Deb, col 1279), why they do not suspend the repayment of universal credit advance payments for six months as opposed to converting advances into non-repayable payments, as recommended by the Resolution Foundation.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL5214
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2020 answer text <p><strong> </strong></p><p>Nobody has to wait five weeks for a payment under Universal Credit. Advances are a mechanism for getting claimants faster access to their entitlement; allowing claimants to receive 13 payments over 12 months with up to 12 months to repay the advance.</p><p> </p><p>New Claims Advances of up to 100 per cent of potential entitlement are available if a claimant needs support during their first assessment period. Face-to-face checks for Universal Credit advances have been scrapped due to COVID-19, so people get the support they need despite COVID-19 restrictions.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has already taken steps to help ease the burden of the repayment of advances.</p><p>We have reduced the maximum deduction from 40 per cent to 30 per cent of a claimant’s standard allowance. The Budget 2020 set out that the maximum level will be further reduced, so that standard deductions will not exceed 25 per cent of a claimant’s Standard Allowance from October 2021.</p><p> </p><p>The repayment time for advances has already been extended from six months to 12 months, and a further extension to 24 months from October 2021 was announced in the budget. Claimants can ask for repayments to be delayed for up to three months if they can’t afford them.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to review our policies but have no further planned changes at this time.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 17/06/2020 17:00:02 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1036898

registered interest
date	07/01/2019
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how are the salaries of employees on Universal Credit who are paid twice within a month, in particular over the Christmas period, being treated for the purposes of benefits payments; and what steps are being taken to prevent such employees being disadvantaged.
tabling member printed	Lord McNicol of West Kilbride
uin	HL12540
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/01/2019 answer text <p>Universal Credit payments reflect, as closely as possible, the actual circumstances of a household during each monthly assessment period. Assessment periods allow for Universal Credit awards to be adjusted on a monthly basis, ensuring that if a claimant’s income falls, they do not have to wait several months for a rise in their Universal Credit award.</p><p> </p><p>Some claimants receive earnings from work multiple times within an assessment period if they are paid via four-weekly, fortnightly, or weekly patterns. This in turn may reduce, or in some cases, nil the Universal Credit award the claimant receives that month. Claimants can always discuss the implications of this with their case managers and work coaches and can be referred to Personal Budgeting Support to help them manage their budgeting.</p><p> </p><p>If a claimant’s Universal Credit claim is closed due to this, claimants can re-claim the following month via a more simplified process than for an initial claim. We have produced guidance to help ensure claimants, staff and representatives are aware of the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles, which is attached with this reply.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is working with employers to ensure that they use the most appropriate payment practices and comply with RTI guidelines in order to minimise the incidence of erroneous or late reporting by employers. HMRC have recently updated guidance to reiterate to employers the importance of reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles; the Financial Secretary to the Treasury is working closely with HMRC and employers to do this.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 21/01/2019 15:36:52 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe attachment 1 file name gov.uk UC earnings patterns.pdf title UC Earning Patterns
tabling member	4702 label Biography information for Lord McNicol of West Kilbride

1311268

registered interest
date	21/04/2021
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit applications there have been since 21 March 2020.
tabling member printed	Lord Browne of Belmont
uin	HL15136
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2021 answer text <p>The total number of new Universal Credit claims made between 21 March 2020 and the latest published date available, 14 January 2021, was 4,242,453. A small minority of people submitted more than one claim and therefore the number of unique individuals who have made a new claim to Universal Credit during the same time period was 4,063,276.</p><p> </p><p>These statistics are published, by day of claim, every three months on Stat-Xplore and the next publication on 18 May 2021 should include daily claims data to 8 April 2021.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 28/04/2021 13:17:27 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	3801 label Biography information for Lord Browne of Belmont

1336865

registered interest
date	15/06/2021
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claimants are (1) black, (2) Asian, (3) other ethnic minority, (4) white, (5) male, and (6) female.
tabling member printed	Baroness Wilcox of Newport
uin	HL1142
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2021 answer text <p>From the latest provisional statistics published on Stat-Xplore, of the 6.01 million people on Universal Credit on 13 May 2021, 2.85 million are male and 3.16 million are female.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit claimants have the opportunity to complete a survey containing diversity questions, including regarding their ethnicity, however answering these questions is not compulsory and the data available does not reach the threshold to be published.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 24/06/2021 16:29:24 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4730 label Biography information for Baroness Wilcox of Newport

1017033

registered interest
date	28/11/2018
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claimants have additional support needs; and how are such claimants identified, monitored and supported.
tabling member printed	Lord Beecham
uin	HL11878
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2018 answer text <p>The information requested is not currently held in a consistent format by the Department.</p><p> </p><p>We are continuously reviewing and improving the service for vulnerable people who claim Universal Credit to ensure that it is accessible and responsive to their needs.</p><p> </p><p>To assist identification and claimant support, each Jobcentre Plus site has a complex needs toolkit in place. These are maintained and reviewed locally and contain a named single point of contact for areas such as Homelessness, Care leavers and Prison leavers.</p><p> </p><p>Work coaches receive training to help them identify and support vulnerable claimants, building a relationship to encourage claimants to openly discuss any concerns or problems as they emerge. We have introduced a function to ‘pin’ key profile notes so they are instantly visible to all staff helping a claimant.</p><p> </p><p>To help claimants who may struggle using online services or managing a monthly payment, Universal Support is available. This is advice, assistance or support to help Universal Credit claimants with managing their claim or award of Universal Credit administered by Citizen’s Advice following our brand new partnership.</p><p> </p><p>We have also increased the numbers of Disability Employment Advisers who now provide additional support to the work coaches so they can better personalise support as we continuously improve the offer available.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 12/12/2018 14:56:09 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4181 label Biography information for Lord Beecham

1197878

registered interest
date	21/05/2020
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claimants have been subject to increased repayments from their weekly benefit following the increase in the Universal Credit standard allowance announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and what proportion of all claimants making repayments that represents.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL4843
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2020 answer text <p>The data for deductions from March 2020 is not yet available. From 3 April 2020, deductions from Universal Credit for benefit overpayments were suspended for three months. This was done to ease the financial pressure of debt recovery on benefit claimants and to also allow Debt Management staff to be re-deployed to focus on the unprecedented volume of new claims received during the covid-19 outbreak.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 04/06/2020 14:47:48 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1471291

registered interest
date	16/06/2022
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claimants in each parliamentary constituency had sums deducted from their claim to repay debt due to previous overpayment, including advances, in the most recent month for which data is available; and what were the (1) average, and (2) total, sums deducted in each constituency.
tabling member printed	Baroness Tyler of Enfield
uin	HL1064
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/06/2022 answer text <p>The Government recognises the importance of supporting the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt. We seek to balance recovery of debt against not causing hardship for claimants and their families. Processes are in place to ensure deductions are manageable, and customers can contact DWP Debt Management if they are experiencing financial hardship, to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment or a temporary suspension, depending on their financial circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>Since April 2021, we have reduced the normal maximum rate of deductions in Universal Credit from 40% to 30 % to 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance. These positive measures were put in place to support claimants to manage financial difficulties.</p><p> </p><p>Advances are a claimant’s benefit entitlement paid early, allowing claimants to access 100% of their estimated Universal Credit payment upfront. They ensure nobody has to wait for a payment in Universal Credit and those who need it are able to receive financial support as soon as possible. Claimants can receive up to 100% of their estimated Universal Credit award if required, resulting in 25 payments over a 24-month period. This is not a debt.</p><p> </p><p>The information requested is provided in the attached spreadsheet.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott grouped question UIN HL1063 question first answered 30/06/2022 13:55:23 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott attachment 1 file name HL1063 HL1064 Table.xlsx title Table
tabling member	4231 label Biography information for Baroness Tyler of Enfield

1127016

registered interest
date	15/05/2019
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	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many applicants for Universal Credit have made their application by means other than the online application system since its introduction; and what are the available methods for doing so.
tabling member printed	Baroness Sherlock
uin	HL15777
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/05/2019 answer text <p>The Universal Credit Full Service Claimant Survey found that 98 per cent of claimants claimed online.</p><p> </p><p>For those claimants who are unable to access or use our digital services, assistance to make and maintain their claim is available via the Freephone Universal Credit helpline. Face-to-face support is also available in Jobcentres. In exceptional circumstances, a home visit can be arranged to support a claimant in making and maintaining their claim.</p><p> </p><p>Furthermore, the Citizens Advice Help to Claim service offers tailored, practical support to help people make a Universal Credit claim and receive their first full correct payment on time. It is available online, over the phone and face to face through local Citizens Advice services across Great Britain.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 29/05/2019 13:36:32 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4147 label Biography information for Baroness Sherlock