Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to grant Trusted Agent Status to Local Authority Welfare Officers in order to help them to assist universal credit claimants.

The pilot during which we will move legacy claimants without a change in circumstance to Universal Credit will start in Harrogate, where we will initially test an approach that is based on using existing relationships that DWP or partners have with claimants. Through these relationships we will establish whether someone is ready to move and how to prepare them. As we become confident that this approach works, we will consider how we can expand this ‘who knows me’ approach through trusted stakeholders, who may include Local Authority Welfare Officers. This approach differs from the ‘Trusted Partner’ status that some Landlords hold to support Universal Credit claimants with their rent verification.