Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the policy of joint universal credit claims for couples to help prevent financial coercion.

If a couple are living together in a household, Universal Credit (UC) normally makes a single award to that household. It is for the couple in the household to determine where their single award is paid. This could be either a joint account or an individual account held by one member of the couple. In joint claims couples are encouraged to nominate the bank account of the main carer to receive the household’s UC payment.

It is possible for a request to be made for a payment to be divided between two members of the household. This is known as a split payment. Whilst the Department is not intending to introduce split payments by default, we respond positively to such requests. The larger percentage of a split payment will be allocated to the person with primary caring responsibilities, such as childcare. This is to ensure the health and well-being of the majority of the household. It is important that we allow the individual who is experiencing abuse to decide whether they think split payments will help their individual circumstances.

We can take other actions to support those experiencing abuse, such as making a managed payment of rent direct to landlords. We also ensure that claimants who disclose abuse are signposted to specialist organisations for support.