Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether, the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of including provisions on automatic split payments in the draft Domestic Abuse Bill.

The Home Office and the Ministry of Justice led on the recent domestic abuse consultation and draft Domestic Abuse Bill. They will publish their response later this session.

Split payments are already available on request in Universal Credit as part of our Alternative Payment Arrangements. Not all victims of domestic abuse will want a split payment and we work with claimants on an individual basis to provide support that fits their individual circumstances. We will provide all the support we can when an individual discloses they are suffering from domestic abuse, and direct them to third party professionals who can provide additional expert advice.

We continue to work closely with the Scottish Government to support the development and implementation of their split payment policy, and will observe the implementation of split payments in Scotland to further understand the impacts of such a policy.