Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many civil penalties relating to failure to undertake tasks required for universal credit compliance have been issued in each of the last 12 months.

A £50 Civil Penalty may be imposed by both Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Local Authorities where an individual incurs a recoverable overpayment as a result of failing to provide accurate information as part of their benefit claim or in connection with an award of benefit, and has not taken reasonable steps to correct the error.

The table below shows the volume of Civil Penalties applied to UC Overpayments in the last 12 months along with the value of recoveries in the last 12 months where a Civil Penalty was imposed on a UC debt. *

Note that there is no correlation between the number applied and the value of recovery for the associated month. Civil Penalties issued in a 12-month period will not necessarily be recovered in that same 12-month period as debts will be repaid over different timeframes, in accordance with a debtor’s particular commitments.

When recovering overpayments, DWP ensures that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect claimants from any undue financial hardship. Like the Department, private collection agencies will look to establish sustainable repayment arrangements.

*The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar data subsequently released by the Department. All figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.