Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide an estimate of the average amount lost by Universal Credit recipients whose payments are affected by errors in employers' Real Time Information submissions to HM Revenue and Customs in the last month for which this data is available.
If a claimant raises a dispute, and if the amount of earnings used in the calculation is found to have been incorrectly reported by the employer, then the UC award would be amended. At this point we would take into account the correct amount of earnings and any underpayments would be issued, with no loss to the claimant.
The Real Time Information (RTI) system shows over 99% of individual employment records now being reported in real time. Where employer errors affect UC entitlement payments are subsequently corrected.