Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the reduction in the maximum rate at which deductions can be made from universal credit to repay an advance payment is not being implemented until October 2019.

We have carefully considered the impact and deliverability of the measures announced in the Autumn Budget 2018 for Universal Credit. The delivery dates we announced achieve the best balance between continually improving Universal Credit to respond to claimant need and ensuring the service is technically and operationally scalable as the volumes on Universal Credit continue to rise through 2019 and 2020.