Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March to Question 234216 on Universal Credit: Disability, what plans the Department has for improving data collection to capture accurate, aggregate data on claimants, including claimants with vulnerabilities.

The Department has already introduced a function on the Universal Credit system to ‘pin’ key profile notes so they are instantly visible to all staff helping a claimant. The Department continues to develop its approach to capturing accurate, aggregate data on claimants, including those with complex needs.

Further work on understanding any vulnerabilities our claimants may have, and apply this learning to the design of Universal Credit is ongoing. This has been prioritised for the current Universal Credit development phase. The Department will report back to the Work and Pensions Select Committee with an update on its progress in late Spring 2019.