Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that people with incomes (a) that fluctuate and (b) from multiple sources are accurately assessed for Universal Credit; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing (i) savings and (ii) earnings thresholds for Universal Credit.

Wherever possible, employed earnings are received through the Real Time Information (RTI) system used by employers to report Pay As You Earn (PAYE) data to HMRC (His Majesty s Revenue and Customs). RTI enables a customer’s Universal Credit award to be automatically adjusted to reflect their earnings each month, which eases the reporting burden on customers.

If earnings are not reported through RTI for any reason, the customer needs to self-report their earnings.

Unearned income such as pension payments and certain benefits, including new style Jobseeker’s Allowance or new style Employment and Support Allowance are taken into account when calculating Universal Credit entitlement. Where these are not paid monthly they are calculated as a monthly equivalent. This is to reflect the Universal Credit monthly assessment period and to ‘smooth’ the calculation of award.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of benefits and State Pensions. The outcome of the Secretary of State’s review will be announced in the usual way.