Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people who begin to apply for Universal Credit do not complete the process; and what assessment they have made of the possible reasons why those people do not complete that process.

Based on our internal data for March 2018, in total 28 per cent of claims do not complete the process.

Of this figure around 8 per cent of claims were closed due to non-entitlement, for example because of capital or not passing the Habitual Residence Test. The remainder (around 19 per cent*) were closed due to non-compliance with the process, for example failure to sign a Claimant Commitment and failing to provide evidence to support their claim.

* percentages do not add up to 28 per cent due to rounding