Universal Credit: Fines
(asked on 8th January 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of universal credit have been issued with court fine deductions in each of the last three years.
We are unable to provide figures for court fine deductions for all of the last three years as improvements to third party data reporting commenced in November 2018. Information which is available can be found in the table below.
Month Payment Due | Number of claims with a deduction for court fines | Proportion of all claims with a deduction for court fines | Total number of UC claims made |
Nov-18 | 7,000 | 1% | 1,116,000 |
Dec-18 | 7,000 | 1% | 1,256,000 |
Jan-19 | 8,000 | 1% | 1,380,000 |
Feb-19 | 8,000 | 1% | 1,481,000 |
Mar-19 | 13,000 | 1% | 1,589,000 |
Apr-19 | 37,000 | 2% | 1,681,000 |
May-19 | 61,000 | 3% | 1,783,000 |
Jun-19 | 82,000 | 4% | 1,864,000 |
Jul-19 | 101,000 | 5% | 1,956,000 |
Aug-19 | 111,000 | 5% | 2,046,000 |
Sep-19 | 116,000 | 5% | 2,121,000 |
Oct-19 | 113,000 | 5% | 2,218,000 |
Nov-19 | 108,000 | 5% | 2,290,000 |
Dec-19 | 112,000 | 5% | 2,367,000 |
Jan-20 | 116,000 | 5% | 2,419,000 |
Feb-20 | 122,000 | 5% | 2,502,000 |
Mar-20 | 126,000 | 5% | 2,612,000 |
Apr-20 | 68,000 | 2% | 3,073,000 |
May-20 | 71,000 | 2% | 4,045,000 |
Jun-20 | 139,000 | 3% | 4,302,000 |
Jul-20 | 126,000 | 3% | 4,434,000 |
Aug-20 | 120,000 | 3% | 4,537,000 |
Notes:
1. Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. |
2. Figures are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available. |
3. Claim numbers may not match official statistics caseloads due to small methodological differences. |
4. Figures for court fine deductions are only available from November 2018 as data on the breakdown of third party deductions was not collated on the Universal Credit systems prior to this. |
5. The increase in the proportion of claims with deductions for fines is due to an improved manual process phased in between February and the end of March 2019 for courts to send through their court fines deductions. |
6. The decrease in number of claims with deductions for court fines from October 2019 is because the maximum deductions limit was reduced from 40% of the standard allowance to 30% of the standard allowance. |
7. Figures for April and May 2020 are affected by the temporary suspension of third party deductions due to Covid-19. |