Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department provides to support people in North Staffordshire making claims for universal benefit under the new procedures.

To date, over 90% of Universal Credit claimants have made their claim online. Other methods will continue to be available – telephone or in person at the Jobcentre – to support claimants who require alternative arrangements to make a successful claim. All Jobcentres across the country have gone digital with computers and free Wi-Fi available for claimants to access the internet.

All new Universal Credit claimants will receive an information pack and advice from their work coach to help them understand universal credit processes and payments, and the support available locally.

Beginning next month Universal Credit will begin to expand across Great Britain in a tranche based approach, mirroring the successful implementation methods that we used to safely and securely roll it out in the north west of England. For more details please see the link below.

(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-national-expansion )

DWP Implementation Officers from Stoke/West Midlands recently met with their local authority counterparts to discuss Universal Credit roll-out in 2015/16 and the need to ensure that through local partnership working, support would be available for those single Job seekers who may need support to make and manage their claim. This discussion is in advance of the more detailed discussions around the detail in the Delivery Partnership Agreements.

Through local partnership working between DWP and local authorities, we are brokering funded Delivery Partnership Agreements to make available more support for those claimants who will need extra help to make and manage their Universal Credit claim on-line and their Universal Credit payment. This will help strengthen local partnership working between DWP, local authorities and their partners as we establish Personal Budgeting Support in all local communities through the expansion of universal credit from February 2015.