Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Oral Statement of 23 November 2017 on universal credit, Official Report, column 1200, what steps her Department has taken to ensure (a) that all new claimants in need are able to access an advance payment and (b) greater collaboration between Citizens Advice and her Department.

Additional work has been done by the Department to further raise awareness of the availability of advances nationally, including a communications campaign in jobcentres and guidance to staff to support them to ensure that all claimants are aware of advances at the outset, how much they can claim and what the maximum repayment period is. Information about advances is also available on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-advances.

We are currently working with Citizens Advice to determine how best we can support Universal Credit claimants together. These discussions are on-going.