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 introducing an automatic interim payment for claimants that do not receive universal credit payments on time.

The Department has no plans to implement a system of interim payments. We have a well-established system of advance payments which are available to all Universal Credit claimants who need them as part of a package of support to manage their transition to Universal Credit.

It is also important to consider that around 80 per cent of new claims are paid in full and on time. In many cases where full payment is not made on time, it is due to unresolved issues such as: claimants not accepting their Claimant Commitment or passing identity checks, or having outstanding verification issues, such as housing costs and self-employed earnings.

We have taken steps to improve verification processes. For example, we have listened to feedback and built processes into the system to make it easier and quicker for people to verify their housing costs, for example through the landlord portal.

Whilst their verification is on-going, many claimants receive a part payment for those elements of the claim that have been resolved. We published an ad hoc statistical release on 9 July which showed, for new claims due a payment in February 2018, 95% were paid in full within five weeks of the payment due date: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/length-of-payment-delays-for-new-claims-to-universal-credit.