Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of automatic deductions from Universal Credit on families' financial wellbeing.
Deductions from Universal Credit are made to protect claimants who have priority debts, ensure social obligations are met and recover taxpayer money. We have to strike the right balance between ensuring those protections are in place and allowing claimants to retain as much of their award as possible for day-to-day needs.
The standard deductions cap has been reduced three times – from 40% to 30% to 25%. This has helped hundreds of thousands of UC claimants to retain more of their award. Reducing the standard cap below 25% would reduce the range of debts a claimants could address, and risk vital obligations (such as Child Maintenance payments) not being made at all.
Claimants can contact DWP Debt management if they are experiencing financial hardship, to discuss a reduction in their rate of repayment or a temporary suspension,depending on their financial circumstances.