Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of Universal Credit claimants that will be moved into the Intensive Work Search regime as a result of removing the couple’s Administrative Earnings Threshold.

Based on current forecasts, Department analysts provisional estimate is that the Intensive Work Search caseload will be increased by around 80,000 as the result of the removal of the Couples’ Administrative Earnings Threshold. Forecasts are subject to revision, and we will publish an updated estimate closer to the time the measure is introduced.