Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the extension of the period over which universal credit advance payments have to be repaid from 12 months to 16 months is not being implemented until October 2021.
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.