Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 21 February 2024 to Question 14064 on Universal Credit: Disqualification, if she will direct her Department to begin collecting statistics on the number of children living in households subject to a Universal Credit sanction.

In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, the Chief Statistician determines the need for new official statistics, and the development of existing statistics. User engagement is at the heart of our considerations for future statistics. These development priorities are regularly updated and published as part of the DWP Statistical Work Programme.

Whilst a full appraisal of the resources needed to enable the development and publication of statistics on the number of children living in households subject to a Universal Credit sanction has not been made, our data on sanctions is for individuals and it is not possible to identify children in the households of individuals receiving a sanction without significant development of the data we hold.