Universal Credit: Disqualification
(asked on 3rd February 2022) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims were suspended in each month from January 2016 to February 2021.
Answered by
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The increase in suspensions seen from 2020, particularly in May and June 2020 could be attributed to the rapid increase in claims to UC during the Covid pandemic when there were over 10 times the usual number of claims made. Over 550,000 claims for Universal Credit were made in each week ending 26 March and 2 April 2020 compared to an average of 54,000 claims per week before the first national lockdown.
The requested information is provided in the attached spreadsheet.