Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to share data with broadband providers on consumers in receipt of benefits for the purposes of increasing the efficiency and speed of the vetting process for applications for social tariffs.

DWP currently have a verification system in place with BT to confirm benefit eligibility, allowing claimants to access the BT Basics social tariff.

DWP is developing a new API service which will enable more Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to confirm eligibility for broadband social tariffs.