Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing payment period arrangements for Universal Credit to account for people who are not paid monthly.

No such assessment has been made.

There are no planned changes to Universal Credit assessment periods or payment schedules.

Universal Credit has been designed with monthly assessment periods to reflect the world of work, where the majority of all employees receive wages monthly. Guidance is available to claimants, staff and representatives to raise awareness of different earnings patterns and their impact on Universal Credit.

The Department has been working closely with HMRC since Universal Credit went live in 2013 to support and inform employers on the importance of timely reporting via the Real Time Information (RTI) system to ensure payments of Universal Credit are accurate. This includes the updating of HMRC guidance to reiterate that where a payment falls on a non-banking day the payment should be shown as having been made on the regular payday.

Where a claimant wishes to dispute the earnings information, we have received from their employer, they can submit evidence to us, and we will look into the case to see if a change needs to be made.