Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have applied for universal credit; and how many of those claimants received an advance payment.

The latest available information on the number of Universal Credit claims is published and can be found at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

Internal data shows that for February 2019, around 60% of eligible new claims to Universal Credit Full Service received an advance payment. Subject to some fluctuation, this rate of advance take-up has been broadly consistent. This shows that claimants are being made aware of advances and are using it where they need this help.