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Universal Credit

Question for Department for Work and Pensions

UIN 106977, tabled on 10 October 2017

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the minimum six week wait for successful claims of universal credit on (a) families and (b) other claimants over the Christmas 2017 period as part of his Department's planning for full-rollout of universal credit from 29 November 2017 in (i) Brighton and Hove and (ii) other areas; if he will make it his policy to suspend the full roll-out of universal credit in (A) Brighton and Hove and (B) other areas where the six week wait falls over the Christmas period; and if he will make a statement.

This answer is the replacement for a previous holding answer.

Answered on

17 October 2017

The Department plans to advance the timing of all payments where people would be impacted by bank holidays, to ensure they have money over the festive period. This includes the careful assessment of technical system and banking system availability to ensure successful payments can be made. This year we have enhanced the functionality and added a faster payment contingency function in Universal Credit. This includes supporting those customers with any request for an advance payment.

There are no plans to suspend Universal Credit rollout as stated by the Secretary of State in the House of Commons on Monday 9th October.

Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.