Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 35960, on universal credit, what the exclusion criteria are.

In some cases, where a claimant would be excluded from work related requirements they will be excluded from the pool of “qualifying claimants”. They will also cease to be part of the scheme if the same circumstances apply after they have been selected. These are:

• recent victims of domestic violence;
• claimants who provide medical evidence of unfitness for work pending a work capability assessment;
• prisoners;
• claimants absent from GB for medical treatment etc;
• claimants suffering a bereavement;
• claimants undergoing treatment for drug or alcohol addiction.