Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of (a) universal credit, (b) employment and support allowance and (c) personal independence payments have died between March 2020 and March 2021.

(a)Universal Credit can be claimed by a range of working age people, some of whom have health conditions or disabilities, which may be degenerative or life limiting. The decision to claim Universal Credit can be prompted by a range of a factors, including when someone is terminally ill, so mortality figures should not be viewed in isolation.

Between 1st March 2020 and 30th November 2020, 12,600 or 0.2 per cent of Universal Credit claimants died. The number of people who received Universal Credit at any point during this period was 6.2million.

(b) The information requested for Employment and Support Allowance is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

(c)Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is claimed by people with a range of health conditions and disabilities, many of which are degenerative or life limiting and the Department treats the death of any claimant sympathetically. The cause of death of claimants on PIP is not collated centrally by the Department. The decision to claim PIP can be prompted by a range of a factors, including when someone is terminally ill, so mortality figures should not be viewed in isolation.

Table 1 below shows the number of claimants receiving PIP who died each month from March 2020 to October 2020, the latest data available, who were receiving PIP at the end of the previous month. Note that the numbers of PIP claimant deaths in March and April 2020 here differ to those presented previously in PQ 59467, due to a methodological update.

Table 1: Number of PIP claimants with entitlement who died each month from March 2020 – October 2020

Source: PIP ADS and Customer Information System

Notes:

• This is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.
• PIP data includes claimants awarded both under normal rules and special rules for terminally ill claimants.
• Claimants receiving PIP include those whose claims are in payment and those whose payment is suspended or part-suspended.
• Claimants’ dates of death are as recorded on the system at 5^th February 2021 and may be subject to change retrospectively.
• Data covers Great Britain only.

Under the Social Security (Notification of Deaths) Regulations 2012 and s125 of Social Security Administration Act 1992 date of death is provided to the Department for all registered deaths. Additionally, next of kin also provide information on the date of death of an individual and this information is used appropriately in the administration of Departmental benefits.