Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to improve the administration of Universal Credit, including to ensure that Universal Credit and other benefit payments are made promptly.

Payment timeliness has improved since the early days of rollout and our latest data shows that around 80 per cent of new claims are paid in full and on time. The Department’s internal data shows that for many cases where full payment is not made on time by the end of the first assessment period, this is as a result of unresolved issues: claimants have not signed their Claimant Commitment or passed identity checks, and the others have outstanding verification issues, such as for housing, self-employed earnings and childcare costs. Whilst their verification is ongoing, many of these claimants receive a part payment for those elements of the claim that have been resolved.

We have always been clear that we will deliver Universal Credit in a way that allows us to continue to make improvements as it is rolled out. We have already done this, such as by modifying the rollout plan following the £1.5 billion package of measures that were introduced in Autumn Budget 2017. This has allowed Universal Credit rollout to continue safely and securely.

To date, we have successfully rolled out Universal Credit Full Service to 264 Jobcentres and prior to each rollout, we carry out a range of implementation activities to ensure each site is well prepared for the arrival of Universal Credit.

Since the autumn of 2017, we have announced a series of changes to the administration of Universal Credit. These include:

• converting our enquiry helplines to freephone numbers
• abolishing the 7 day waiting period, thus reducing the time that some claimants wait to receive their first payment
• increasing the amount of an advance payment that a claimant can apply for from the start of their claim, from 50 per cent to 100 per cent of their indicative award
• extending the period over which an advance payment is recovered from 6 to 12 months
• providing new Universal Credit claimants who are already receiving support towards their housing costs an additional payment of two weeks of their housing benefit, to support them as they transition to universal credit

We plan to publish regular national statistics on Universal Credit, including payment timeliness, in the near future. This data is currently going through quality assurance clearance procedures in line with the National Statistics and Official Statistics publication standard.