Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 June 2019 to Question 257458 on Universal Credit: Overpayments, how many successful applications there were for a reduction in an overpayment repayment rate in each year from 2013 to 2018.

The information requested is not available.

Our systems do not hold data on the recovery rates that were applied to debts that have either been fully repaid, or have been written off. It is therefore not possible to give a complete figure for the total number of successful, or unsuccessful applications for a reduction in an overpayment recovery rate.

The Department ensures that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect claimants who have deductions from their benefit to repay overpayments. If a claimant is struggling they can contact the Department’s Debt Management Team to discuss lowering their repayment rate. Any adjustment to the rate of repayment will be based on the individual circumstances of the claimant.