Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps are taken to inform claimants when their Universal Credit journal will not be (a) monitored and (b) responded to, including for temporary administrative reasons.

Claimants are routinely informed of actions, requests and updates through journal messages, which are recorded on their UC account to ensure transparency and provide a clear audit trail of communications. DWP staff are required to leave journal messages when taking action on a claim and to ensure claimants have visibility of requests, updates, next steps and any outstanding actions.

Where further action or response is required from the claimant, this is communicated through the journal, including any relevant deadlines, and claimants are advised that they can reply in their journal or contact the Department if they need further support. The claimant can write messages in their journal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, they are aware that they will not receive a response to their messages outside office hours.

Where claimants are unable to use their journal or require additional support, alternative channels are available, including telephone contact and Jobcentre support, to ensure they are able to engage with the Department.

If the service is down, there is an automated message to advise claimants the service is temporarily unavailable.

The Department keeps under review how it communicates with claimants to ensure information is clear and timely, including how updates and responses are provided through the UC journal.