Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of meetings at job centres for universal credit claimants have been missed due to ill health in each year for which information is available.

The requested information is not readily available as the Department does not centrally collate information on the reasons a claimant might give for not attending an appointment. Where a claimant has a health condition we will apply easements to their conditionality and we may postpone or reschedule their appointment. If a claimant fails to attend a meeting due to a health condition, we would consider a temporary period of sickness or medical emergency to be a good reason for this.