Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent on advertising in the last 12 months; and what proportion of that spend was on advertising for universal credit.

We are the biggest Government Department providing support on a daily basis to around 22 million citizens. We have a responsibility to raise awareness of the benefits people may be entitled to and ensure they have the information they need when it comes to making a claim.

The Department also has a responsibility to ensure claimants do not miss out on their full entitlements and to encourage people to make their claim as quickly as possible.

We use advertising to communicate to our claimants. Total advertising spend across the Department in the 12 months from April 2018 to March 2019 was £17,351,663 of which the Universal Credit Opening Up Work campaign accounted for £4,600,209. We can commit to publishing an update 2019/20 advertising spend at the end of July.