Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to change her Department’s policy on consent requirements for authorised representatives to act on behalf of claimants of universal credit.

We have had a number of workshops with stakeholders during which consent has been discussed, and we plan to do further work on explicit consent. This activity will include working with claimants and their representatives to ensure the process works effectively for vulnerable claimants to access the service.