Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of the suspension period was for benefit claimants who had their benefits suspended and then reinstated by the Risk Review team.

Individual data is not captured on average suspension periods and would be disproportionate in cost to identify this information.

The Risk Review Team (RRT) complete a review of eligibility and entitlement ; we engage with customers to request evidence to determine entitlement. The length of time it takes to review the case to allow the claim to be reinstated will depend on the cooperation from the claimant engaging with RRT and providing accurate documentation.

We have a process in place, where we make three attempts via telephone to engage with the customer, giving 48 hours’ notice between calls, these calls are booked in advance via the customers Universal Credit account . If there is no engagement from the customer, a claim can be closed after 30 plus 1 day from RRT starting their review.