Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking consult stakeholders during her Department's review of universal credit; and what plans she has for the format of such consultation.

We are committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty.  We have already begun this work with the announcement of the Fair Repayment Rate in the Budget, giving 1.2m of the poorest households an average of £420 per year.

I will lead this work and, over the next year, engage with people and invite views on how we can improve UC and take advantage of missed opportunities which it presents.  We will continue to work closely with stakeholders as we undertake this review and will set out further details in due course.  We will update Parliament regularly on progress and findings.