Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on arrangements for prisoners to apply for universal credit (a) prior to and (b) no later than their release from custody.

Ministry of Justice and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) ministers regularly meet, the last time being in July 2019, and will meet again soon. In the July meeting, both departments were keen to progress work to better prepare prisoners for release, including improving access to Universal Credit.

The DWP has piloted a number of changes that will support offenders making claims prior to release. We are working closely with the DWP to take forward the learning from these pilots. One area that the pilots highlighted was the important role that dedicated DWP Prison Work Coaches play in our prison system to ensure access to Universal Credit. We continue to work with DWP to help support these work coaches, and to ensure they have both the right physical environment and information on and access to prisoners required for efficient working.

In July 2019, we published the National Partnership Agreement with the DWP. This sets out how the departments will collaborate to improve access to Universal Credit for prison leavers to ensure they have timely access to financial support on release.