Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims were issued with a negative decision on the grounds that the claimant failed the habitual resident test, as a proportion of total claims, in each month from January 2014 to December 2021.

The table attached gives relevant proportions and volumes of total Universal Credit (UC) claims that failed their Habitual Residency Test (HRT) in each month from June 2015 to September 2021.

The Department currently holds information for HRTs failed by UC claimants from June 2015 to September 2021.

Notes:

1. Numbers failing the HRT are updated monthly and retrospectively as outcomes are resolved. Current numbers and the proportions on which these are based may therefore be different from those shared at an earlier time for the same period.
2. The rise in numbers failing the HRT since 2015 reflects the gradual roll out of UC and rising UC caseload.
3. Only single-person claims were included on the early UC caseload until December 2018 when the UC full service began rollout.
4. Proportions in table attached are based on unrounded numbers.
5. Any numbers shown below 100 are rounded to the nearest 10.
6. Any numbers shown above 100 are rounded to the nearest 100.