Universal Credit: Payment Methods

(asked on 17th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of universal credit received payments into a Post Office Card Account in each of the last 12 months.


Answered by
Alok Sharma Portrait
Alok Sharma
COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 20th June 2019

The Department’s standard method of payment for pensions and benefits is into a bank, building society or credit union account. For claimants who cannot open one of these accounts, or provide the details for their own account to access their payment, the Department can offer two alternatives: The Post Office Card Account and HM Government Payment Exception Service, both of which guarantee access to their payment of pension and or benefit.

The Department has been contacting claimants using Post Office Card Accounts since September 2015 offering information to claimants to move to standard payment methods.

As a claimant may receive more than one payment of Universal Credit in each month, we have supplied the total volume of Universal Credit payments made into Post Office Card Accounts in each of the last 12 months in the table below. Increasing volumes of Universal Credit payments into these types of account reflect those naturally migrating from legacy benefits and taking their payment method with them.

Month

Payments Made

June 2018

10,322

July 2018

9,699

August 2018

10,686

September 2018

10,494

October 2018

10,302

November 2018

12,160

December 2018

12,649

January 2019

12,571

February 2019

13,807

March 2019

14,209

April 2019

14,377

May 2019

15,724

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