Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants have repaid benefit overpayments at 40 per cent from their standard allowance in the most recent period for which figures are available.

When recovering a benefit overpayment, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has different deduction rates that are applied in different circumstances. The highest rate of 40% of the standard allowance is only applicable where a debt has been classified as fraud.

Our current internal data shows that there are around 8,500 Universal Credit claimants with an overpayment classified as fraud. Other factors, such as higher priority deductions, may mean that DWP is unable to deduct at 40% for the recovery of a benefit overpayment.