Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the ruling by the Court of Appeal in SSWP v Johnson & Others [2020] EWCA Civ 778, handed down on 22 June, what plans they have (1) to change the algorithm used to calculate Universal Credit entitlements, and (2) to compensate claimants whose payments were affected by that algorithm.

In its deliberations, the Court of Appeal recognised the complexity of the issue which the Department is working towards resolving for claimants as soon as possible.

We intend to bring forward legislation to address the issues raised by the Court of Appeal so that in future, for cases affected by this issue, monthly earnings can be reallocated to another assessment period, which means that only one set of earnings should be taken into account rather than two.