| answer text |
<p>Since Summer 2019, the online claim process has featured messaging that encourages
joint claimants to select the bank account of the main carer when choosing where Universal
Credit payments should be paid to. This seeks to balance encouragement of positive
financial management behaviours, whilst also allowing claimants to choose how to best
manage their own finances.</p><p> </p><p>It is not currently possible to reliably
identify whether payment has been made to the main carer in couples with children.
While we have analysed data on payments to male and female members of couples (as
below), we cannot yet confidently identify the main carer. It has not been possible
to draw robust conclusions based on this limited evidence. Further work is planned.</p><p>
</p><p>The ‘Universal Credit Statistical Ad Hoc: Gender of bank account holders on
Universal Credit’, published January 2019, shows that for couple claimants where the
gender of the account holder could be identified, 59% of accounts are held by a female
with 41% held by a male. This is the source of the statistic stated in the Government’s
response to the report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill,
that ‘around 60 per cent of Universal Credit payments go to the main carer, usually
a woman’, although I regret that response should more accurately have said that ‘around
60 per cent of Universal Credit couple payments go to the woman, usually the main
carer.’</p>
|
|
