Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the latest annual percentage change was in the claimant court in areas operating universal credit (a) full service and (b) live service; and what reasons he ascribes to the difference in the change in the claimant count between full service and live service areas.

The latest claimant count data is for January 2017.

The cumulative claimant count figure for the offices operating Full Service increased by 25.5% in the 12 months to January 2017. The remaining offices operating Live Service saw an overall fall of 1.5% in the count over the same period.

Universal Credit will tend to increase the claimant count because it extends our support to find work to claimants who have never received this support before. For example, people who, in the past, only claimed Child Tax Credit or Housing Benefit (and not Jobseekers Allowance) and now will claim Universal Credit, will be helped to prepare for and look for work. So will partners of Universal Credit claimants.

The roll out of this support is more advanced in Full Service areas, and as we bring these people onto Universal Credit, it is to be expected that the claimant count will be higher than it would otherwise have been.