Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the impact Universal Credit migration will have on a claimant’s ability to meet rent costs; and what information his Department holds on the extent of rent arrears as a result of obligatory Universal Credit migration.

The Department is committed to monitoring and evaluating the impact of its policies.

The Department has introduced measures to minimise arrears due to migration:

People who receive Housing Benefit and then claim Universal Credit will receive a two-week Transition to UC Housing Payment, when that Universal Credit claim causes their Housing Benefit claim to cease.

A two-week Transition to UC Housing Payment will also be paid to those claimants who have been required to claim Universal Credit as part of the managed migration process but fail to do so by the deadline they have been given for making that claim.