Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons MPs offices have implicit consent arrangements for universal credit applications and advice services require explicit consent to support claimants.

On 13 March 2017 Written Statement - HCWS528 outlined the implicit consent arrangements for MPs.

Where explicit consent is needed it can be quickly given in different ways. For example, claimants only need to put a note in their journal to give consent; this is a far simpler and more straightforward process than in legacy systems. Once consent is given, advisers will work with the claimant’s representatives.

In our response to the Social Security Advisory Committee we agreed to explore options for improving the process of explicit consent in relation to Universal Credit in collaboration with the Committee to consider how current practices could be enhanced and to publish a report on our joint conclusions.