Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what was the (a) average amount per household and (b) total aggregated amount taken from Universal Credit payments amongst households subject to a deduction in each of the last 12 months for which data is available.

The primary aim of the Universal Credit deductions policy is to protect vulnerable claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services. In recent years, the standard UC deduction cap has been reduced twice – from 40% to 30% of the Standard Allowance in October 2019, and down to 25% in April 2021.

The requested information is provided in the separate spreadsheet.