Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the High Court judgment of 11 January 2019, [2019] EWHC 23 (Admin), on universal credit and periodic assessments of income, what submissions on remedies her Department has made to the court.

The judgment affects a small number of people on Universal Credit (UC), with specific characteristics. The Department is currently appealing this judgment, and as such will await the outcome of that process before taking any further action.

Monthly assessment periods align to the way the majority of employees are paid and also allows UC to be adjusted each month. This means that if a claimant's income falls, they will not have to wait several months for a rise in their UC.

The amount of UC paid to claimants reflects the actual circumstances of a household during each monthly assessment period, as closely as possible.