Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for universal credit have been made in the Welsh language.

Universal Credit claims in the Welsh language is available to anyone making a new claim in Wales now that roll-out is complete.

The Department’s Welsh Language Scheme also offers legacy claimants the ability to be communicated with, orally or written, via the medium of Welsh; they do not have to wait to be moved over to Universal Credit via managed migration to take advantage of Welsh language services.

Our internal data suggests that 290 Universal Credit claimants (or 1.6% of new claims made in Wales since 5 December 2018) have declared a Welsh language preference.

We have agreed to pilot the initial approach to migration slowly and gradually, but (as set out in Written Statement HCWS1243 on 11 January 2019) this does not affect the timeline for the overall delivery of Universal Credit.