Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of new universal credit claims were processed and paid within six weeks in the last six months.

We are intending to publish further data on payment timeliness in due course, but our latest internal data, for week ending 19 June, suggests some 80% of cases were paid in full at the end of the first assessment period.

For the 20% of cases who were not paid in full we estimate around a third have not signed up to their claimant commitment so cannot be paid until they have. The other two thirds have an outstanding verification issue, such as providing bank statements, evidence of childcare costs, or proof of rent. Many of these claimants receive a part-payment where elements of the claim have been verified.