Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, including errors and duplicates, what the average number of notices is that his Department has sent to local authorities for each person transferring from housing benefit to universal credit; and what estimate his Department has made of the cost of sending such notices to local authorities.

‘Housing Benefit Stop Notice’ is an automated system that electronically sends these notices to the Local Authorities. Notices are sent via this process at nil cost. The number of notices sent is recorded in each case, but not in a form that can be aggregated across all cases to provide the information requested.