Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of families on universal credit in 2018-19 in (a) Salford and (b) Worsley and Eccles South constituency; and what her policy is on foodbank referrals for those people.

It is not Department for Work and Pensions policy to refer claimants to food banks. However, flexibility and innovation in local Jobcentre arrangements allow for signposting to foodbanks.

In November 2019 the total number of households on Universal Credit in Salford was 12,395 and in Worsley and Eccles South constituency was 5,151.

Source: Stat-Xplore, Department for Work and Pensions

Notes:

1. Statistical disclosure control has been applied to avoid the release of confidential data.
2. A count date of the second Thursday of the month is used when calculating the statistics for the households on Universal Credit.
3. Further information on the background and methodology can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-statistics-background-information-and-methodology/universal-credit-statistics-background-information-and-methodology
4. These figures are provisional. These figures will be subject to revision in subsequent releases. It is expected that overall provisional figures will be within two per cent of their revised figure in future releases.
5. This data is published and available at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
6. Guidance on how to extract information can be found at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html