Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department’s review of Universal Credit will consider (a) the potential impact and effectiveness of the conditionality scheme and (b) the necessity of sanctions for lead carers of children.

The review of Universal Credit is exploring the policy design and structures of Universal Credit and is focused on three main areas:

• Tackling poverty and helping people manage their money
• Making work pay and improving work incentives
• Maximising Universal Credit's potential and its impact on customers

We have already shown our ambition with the changes made to the Fair Repayment Rate, enabling 1.2m households to retain an average of £420 per year.

Conditionality and sanctions are not in scope of the review. We do, however, continuously review both the policy and how they are applied, as well as how they affect claimants and their outcomes.