Universal Credit: Deductions
(asked on 12th July 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2023 to Question 187662 on Universal Credit: Deductions, if he will provide the data set out in table one for the periods (a) March 2020 to February 2021 and (b) March 2021 to February 2022.
The information requested is provided in the table below.
Table 1: Number and value of third party debts registered against Universal Credit households
between March 2020 and February 2021 and March 2021 and February 2022
Type of Debt | Mar-20 to Feb-21 | Mar-21 to Feb-22 | ||
Number of Debts registered | Total Amount of Debt Registered | Number of Debts registered | Total Amount of Debt Registered | |
Council Tax | 134,100 | £63,600,000 | 177,800 | £88,500,000 |
Electricity Arrears | 7,200 | £9,330,000 | 8,500 | £11,820,000 |
Fines | 250,300 | £207,460,000 | 274,400 | £216,810,000 |
Gas Arrears | 5,900 | £5,580,000 | 6,600 | £6,740,000 |
Mortgage Interest | 10 | £10,000 | 10 | £5,000 |
Owner Occupied Service Charges | 80 | £120,000 | 60 | £100,000 |
Water Arrears | 34,200 | £33,980,000 | 48,800 | £53,640,000 |
Total | 431,800 | £320,080,000 | 516,300 | £377,620,000 |
Notes:
1. The number of debts has been rounded to the nearest hundred, except for Mortgage Interest and Owner Occupier Service charges, which have been rounded to the nearest 10 due to low numbers. Total debt amounts have been rounded to the nearest £10,000 except Mortgage Interest, which has been rounded to the nearest £1,000 due to low values.
2. The registration date for debts is defined as the date the Third Party debt was created.
3. Ongoing consumption deductions for gas, water and electricity are excluded from the total amount of debt. These don’t have a debt amount as they are deductions to pay for ongoing monthly usage. They should only be applied to claims with existing energy / water arrears so households with both arrears and ongoing consumption deductions will be counted in the number of debts registered in the water and energy debt categories.
4. From April 2020 to July 2020, a temporary freeze on government and third party deductions was introduced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
5. On 12th April 2021, the maximum deductions limit was reduced from 30% of the standard allowance to 25%. In May 2021, the additional court fines deduction was removed lowering the rate to 5% of standard allowance.
6. Some households may have had more than one debt registered against their Universal Credit claim, so may appear more than once in these statistics.
7. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available