Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has plans to allow online applications for universal credit to be made without having to provide bank details.

People can already claim Universal Credit online without a bank account and instructions are provided on the bank account page itself.

Claimants can also use their relatives’ and appointees’ bank accounts in the short term. However, we would always recommend that claimants have and use their own bank accounts.