To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants were ineligible for the first cost of living payment as a result of having received two paychecks within the assessment period.
Answered on
27 September 2022
It is not possible to identify how many households did not receive the Cost-of-Living payment because of the way their wages were paid during the qualifying month.
A claimant may not be eligible to receive a Cost-of-Living payment if they have an increase earnings during the qualifying period. We are unable to distinguish whether this fluctuation is temporary or permanent. This fluctuation could be the result of a household receiving additional earnings due to being paid more frequently or another reason.
There were 464,000 Universal Credit households where earnings reduced their Universal Credit award to £0 for the qualifying period. This was equivalent to 551,000 Universal Credit claimants.