Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to assess the number of eligible applicants who do not complete their application for universal credit.

Based on our internal data for March 2018, in total 28 per cent of claims do not complete the process.

Of this figure around 8 per cent of claims were closed due to non-entitlement, for example because of capital or not passing the Habitual Residence Test. The remainder (around 19 per cent*) were closed due to non-compliance with the process, for example failure to sign a Claimant Commitment and failing to provide evidence to support their claim.

* percentages do not add up to 28 per cent due to rounding