Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the benefit cap for universal credit claimants is backdated to the date of the original claim rather than applied from the date of notification as with people whose housing benefit is subject to the benefit cap.

The department does not readily hold the data requested.

As Universal Credit simplifies the benefits system, all of the necessary information to decide whether or not to apply the benefit cap is held in one place. Therefore, the benefit cap calculation is not in practice being backdated, rather it is encompassed in the overall Universal Credit assessment.