Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the length of time taken to respond to journal messages submitted by claimants of universal credit.

Universal Credit is a 24 hour, seven days a week, digital service that allows claimants to manage their own data and account online at a time which is convenient for them. Via their account, claimants can check their Universal Credit benefit payments through their account, notify us of changes and record notes on the online journal facility.

The journal is primarily used to support work search activity and as such not every journal entry will require a response.

The Case Manager or Work Coach receives a notification in real time each time a claimant submits an entry to their online journal. Journal entries are monitored daily as part of our case management approach.