Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2016 to Question 55249, by what date the Government anticipates that the Real Time Information function of universal credit will make it possible to track claimant earnings.

Since the start of Universal Credit the Real Time Information (RTI) system has been helping to ensure that we get Universal Credit claims right by providing us with accurate and timely details of earnings payments from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

The system is working well with over 99% of individual employment records now being reported in real time. We expect the number of working claimants with earnings reported via RTI to increase as Universal Credit continues to roll out and claimant numbers increase accordingly.