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 extending implicit consent to universal credit to ensure that authorised third parties can assist claimants to make and manage their claim.

The online digital account, which is fundamental to the design of the full service, allows claimants access to all their personal, medical, financial and other data. As a result, the claimant ‘holds the key’ to that account at all times.

Running a system of implied consent means that the risk of disclosure of this material to third parties is heightened beyond an acceptable level under existing data protection rules, and might also undermine other security features we have built into the system through personal accreditation.

Claimants can now provide explicit consent by making an entry in their journal. Continuing to operate an implicit consent system is no longer necessary, and can no longer be justified.