Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants had the minimum income floor applied during the qualifying period for the Cost of Living Payment with the 25 February 2023 deadline; and how many such claimants received a nil payment due to the minimum income floor.

During the qualifying period for the Cost of Living Payment with the 25 February 2023 deadline, there were 141,900 Universal Credit claimants that had the minimum income floor applied. 12,000 of these claimants received a nil payment potentially due to the minimum income floor.

Notes

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
2. Claimants are treated as having the Minimum Income Floor applied if they have been assessed as gainfully self-employed, are not in a start-up period during which the Minimum Income Floor is not applied, and do not have a temporary easement by which their Minimum Income Floor is set to zero.
3. Claimants to whom the Minimum Income Floor applied includes both those whose actual net earnings are below their Minimum Income Floor and those whose actual net earnings are above.
4. We have identified claimants as receiving a nil payment potentially due to the minimum income floor if they had a nil payment and their actual net earnings were below the minimum income floor. Not all of these claimants would necessarily have received an award in the absence of the minimum income floor.
5. Claimants are excluded if their claim closed before the end of the assessment period falling in the qualifying period.
6. Figures may be subject to retrospective changes as more up-to-date data becomes available or if methodological improvements are made.