Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which organisations her Department defines as partners in the delivery of universal credit.

We work with a wide range of stakeholders, many of whom we collaborate with directly and consider partners. The next phase of delivering Universal Credit (UC) involves moving legacy benefit claimants to Universal Credit. The Department plans to pilot this approach, to test our processes carefully to ensure that claimants on all legacy benefits with a range of characteristics can be successfully moved onto Universal Credit. The Department is working with a wide and diverse range of stakeholders to design the process and we are currently developing the detailed planning on how we will start the pilot process, including which groups or individuals we will begin to move to Universal Credit.

From 1 April 2019 Citizens Advice (England and Wales) and Citizens Advice Scotland are delivering the new ‘Help to Claim’ support to claimants making a new Universal Credit claim or moving from a legacy benefit to UC because of a change of circumstances. The Citizens Advice Help to Claim offers tailored, practical support to help people make a UC claim up to receiving their first full correct payment on time. It is be available online, through web-chat, through a Freephone number and face to face through local Citizens Advice services.