Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether an emergency telephone line will be available over the Christmas period to allow new universal credit claimants to apply for an advance before their first payment.

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, also supporting those customers who request an advance payment during this time and minimising any impact on claimants for the brief period when the Universal Credit helpline is closed. 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.