Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the requirement for advanced payments under universal credit to be repaid to her Department, for what reason her Department does not treat those advanced payments as a loan for the purposes of departmental data publication.

Accounting regulations would not allow us to treat UC Advances as loans as they are not loans and so are not recognised as loans.

Advances are a mechanism for getting claimants faster access to their entitlement; allowing claimants to receive 13 payments over 12 months with up to 12 months to repay the advance.