Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what representations he has received from local authorities engaged in the accelerated rollout of universal credit to their areas from February 2015.

As part of the national roll out of Universal Credit (UC) which I announced on 12 October 2014, officials from my Department are in discussions with Local Authorities (LA) and their representative bodies across Great Britain including the Local Government Association, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Welsh Local Government Association in taking UC forward.

Senior Representatives jointly consider matters in the Partnership Forum, and in the Universal Support Task Force and most recently the Implementation and Expansion Sub Group.

These discussions include; agreeing go-live dates, managing communications, discussion on level of support LAs can provide to UC claimants and associated costs. All Representations from LAs are being managed at a local level during the course of these discussions.

The Minister for Welfare Reform has engaged with the local government sector including holding regular meetings with Councillor David Sparks, chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA).