Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, how many Universal Credit claimants in each parliamentary constituency have had money deducted; and what was (1) the average size of the amount deducted, (2) the total amount deducted, and (3) the proportion of each sum deducted to repay advance payments.

From 3rd April 2020, deductions from Universal Credit for some government debt, such as Tax Credits, benefit overpayments and Social Fund Loans were suspended for 3 months. This was done to ease the financial pressure of debt recovery on benefit claimants and to also allow Debt Management staff to be re-deployed to focus on the unprecedented volume of new claims received during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Universal Credit advance repayments are made gradually over 12 months, and deductions are capped at 30 per cent of a claimant’s standard allowance. This is further to the reduction of the overall maximum level of deductions from 40 per cent to 30 per cent of the standard allowance since October 2019.

From October 2021, the repayment period will be extended from 12 months to 24 months and the deductions cap will be reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent.

For those who find themselves in unexpected hardship, advance repayments can be deferred for up to three months in certain cases.

The requested information surrounding deductions to Universal Credit payments by parliamentary constituency is shown in the attached table.