Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an estimate of the number of claimants who did not receive a Cost of Living payment in July 2022 following application of sanctions to their Universal Credit.

Between the 14 and 20 July, the department processed over 7.2m cost of living payments worth around £2.4 billion. In total, over eight million families will be eligible for this payment, with around one million eligible because they receive tax credits and no other eligible benefits. These families will receive their first instalment from HMRC in the autumn, and the second instalment in the winter. Further information is available at: 7.2 million Cost of Living payments made to low-income families - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and at: Cost of Living Payment - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Universal Credit households can receive a nil award for various reasons. The majority of nil awards are due to household earnings. Other reasons that can cause or contribute to a nil award include capital, other income, other benefits, sanctions and fraud penalties.

12,200 households containing 12,400 UC claimants had a nil Universal Credit award with an amount deducted for a sanction in the qualifying assessment period, that did not receive the cost-of-living payment. Of these households, there were 6,600 households containing 6,600 claimants where the sanction was the only reason for the nil award. In the remaining households the nil award was due to a combination of the sanction and other reasons.

Notes:

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.

2. Great Britain level figures have been provided.

3. Nil awards have been defined as households that received a £0 Universal Credit payment and had no deductions for advance repayments, third party debts or government debts and had no money paid directly to their landlord by Universal Credit.

4. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.

5. The methodology used is different to the methodology used to derive the Official Statistics Household series and therefore, figures may not be comparable.

6. The methodology and data source may be slightly different to those used to derive entitlement to the Cost-of-Living Payment.