Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of enabling local authorities access to up-to-date Universal Credit claimant data for all claimants in their area.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) recognises the benefits of further Universal Credit data sharing with Local Authorities to support vulnerable citizens.

DWP is working on a project to do exactly this, and aims to have delivered a test version to a small group of LAs by Spring 2026. Subject to this test being successful, we will roll this out to all LAs during the rest of 2026.