Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time was for claimants of universal credit from (a) the opening of a universal credit account and (b) an interview at a job centre to the first payment of universal credit.

The information is not available in the format requested. However, we do have data for the declaration date to payment date.

Data published on 2 October 2017 shows that, 81% of new Universal Credit households received their first payment in full and on time. Across the whole of Universal Credit 92% of all households received full payment on time. The published data can be found here. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-payment-timeliness-january-to-june-2017

The policy intention is that claimants receive the first payment 5 weeks after their date of entitlement (6 weeks if waiting days are served). This mirrors the world of work and allows for time in which to gather information about a claimant’s earnings.

Our internal data shows that for those cases where full payment has not been made, around a sixth, have not signed their Claimant Commitment or passed identity checks . The others have outstanding verification issues, for example, housing, self-employed earnings and child-care costs.