Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the decision to reduce the maximum rate of deductions from 30 per cent of the Universal Credit standard allowance to 25 per cent of the Universal Credit standard allowance.

The reduction in the maximum rate of UC deduction for debt repayments from 30% to 25% has negligible costs which are in the region of £10m in the period April 2021 to April 2025. Given DWP’s ability to continually collect debt from working age benefits and pensions the nature of DWP debt write-offs only results from customers who die with no-estate.