Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of universal credit claimants were subject to a deduction of any type in the most recent month for which data is available.

For Universal Credit claims due a payment during May 2020, 40% (1,627,000 claims) had a deduction.

Notes

1. Deductions include advance repayments, third party deductions and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.

2. Figure rounded to the nearest 1,000.

3. Third party deductions were suspended due to covid-19 from 10th April to 10th May and ‘other deductions’ (excluding advance repayments) were suspended for three months from the beginning of April, therefore these figures may not be representative of the full cohort of claims which would otherwise be having deductions.

4. Other debts include Universal Credit third party deductions and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.