Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether claimants of (a) disability benefits and (b) low or no income benefits can report a hospital stay via a phone call; and if her Department will take steps to introduce a tell me once system.

For Disability Benefits, the usual route for the customer to notify us of a hospital admission is either via phone or in writing. Universal Credit customers can report a hospital stay via a phone call, they can also report it digitally via a journal message on their Universal Credit account or via a third party or supporter if consent has been given.

The Department is working on a digital channel for customers which will allow them to tell us about changes in one place. We do have plans to enable this going forward, but the work is not expected to be complete for at least another 12 months. Disability Benefits, other low-income benefits and later life services are in-scope for this work, but, at present, Universal Credit is not.