Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure prompt and accurate payments of universal credit for people being transferred to that benefit in the run-up to Christmas.

To ensure people have money over the festive period the Department plans to pay in advance of the due date the people that could be affected by bank holidays. 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.