Universal Credit

(asked on 14th May 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of sharing universal credit data with local authorities to help improve local responses to poverty.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 18th May 2021

The Department already shares significant amounts of Universal Credit (UC) data through a secure mechanism with Local Authorities (LAs), including through a daily feed of change notifications to support administration of Council Tax Reduction schemes. In addition, LAs have access to claimant level UC data via a system called Searchlight. We continue to engage with LAs to enhance our understanding of how data access may support localised provision.

To further support LAs in identifying vulnerable families, we are also planning to provide them with information about those Universal Credit claims with limited capability for work as well as claims with earnings below the free school meals and free prescription thresholds before the end of May.

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