Universal Credit
(asked on 17th January 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claims were subject to (1) deductions (advance repayments), third party reductions and all other deductions, (2) reductions (sanctions and fraud penalties), and (3) suspension (stop in payment due to doubt over entitlement), in the 2022–23 financial year; and what was the (a) average, and (b) total, amount (i) deducted, (ii) reduced, and (iii) suspended; and what proportion does this represent.
Answered by
Viscount Younger of Leckie
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on 1) deductions and 2) fraud penalties for Universal Credit are provided in the tables below.
Table 1: Number of households with a Universal Credit Claim subject to at least one deduction, broken down by deduction type; the number of households with a deduction as a proportion of all universal credit households; what the total sum of deductions was; how much on average was deducted, in the 2022-23 financial year.
2022/23 | Number of distinct UC claims | Proportion of Universal Credit Claims subject to Deduction | Total Amount Deducted | Average Deduction Amount |
Claims with deduction for an advance | 2,400,000 | 38% | £690,000,000 | £40 |
Claims with deduction for third party | 950,000 | 15% | £227,000,000 | £33 |
Claims with other deductions | 2,200,000 | 34% | £684,000,000 | £49 |
All UC claims with at least one deduction | 3,500,000 | 55% | £1,601,000,000 | £62 |
All UC claims | 6,400,000 |
Table 2: Number of households with a Universal Credit Claim subject to at least fraud penalty; the number of households with a fraud penalty as a proportion of all universal credit households; what the total sum of fraud penalties was; the average fraud penalty, in the 2022-23 financial year.
Table 2 | ||||
Number of distinct UC claims in the 2022-23 Financial Year | Number of households with at least one fraud penalty in the 2022-23 Financial Year | Households with at least one fraud penalty as a proportion of all UC households | Total amount of Fraud Penalties across the 22/23 financial year | Average Fraud Penalty Amount for those households with a fraud penalty |
6,400,000 | 330 | 0.01% | £65,000 | £200 |
Notes:
1. Average deduction amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1 and proportions have been rounded to the nearest percentage point. Fraud penalty reduction amounts are rounded to nearest £10 and proportions to the nearest 0.01 percentage point.
2. Deductions include advance repayments, third party deductions and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.
3. "Advances" include all four UC advance types: New Claim, Benefit Transfer, Budgeting and Change of Circumstances.
4. The table includes the number of distinct Universal Credit households subject to a deduction in the period 2022-2023. Any household with deductions in more than one assessment period within the period requested will only be counted once. Where a household has multiple deductions in the same assessment period, these figures provide the total of all deductions taken.
5. The table includes the number of distinct Universal Credit households subject to a fraud penalty in the period 2022-2023. Any household with fraud penalty in more than one assessment period within the period requested will only be counted once. Where a household has multiple fraud penalties in the same assessment period, these figures provide the total of all fraud penalties taken.
6. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
7. This method for calculating the proportion is different to the usual reported figure which looks at a given month and historically has been around 45% for all UC households. See PQ UIN: 203044.
8. Households could have more than one deduction type so adding claims by deduction type may not sum to the total of all deductions.
Information on 2) reductions due to sanctions is provided below
Monthly statistics for April 2022 to March 2023, on the number of Universal Credit full service claimants with a payment that has been reduced due to a sanction, are published on Stat-Xplore, and are shown in the following table.
UC claimants in conditionality regimes where sanctions can be applied by month and sanction indicator from April 2022 to March 2023 | |||
Sanction indicator | Yes | No | Total |
April 2022 | 106,172 | 5,439,955 | 5,546,129 |
May 2022 | 108,969 | 5,432,866 | 5,541,837 |
June 2022 | 110,438 | 5,450,340 | 5,560,774 |
July 2022 | 117,527 | 5,502,514 | 5,620,041 |
August 2022 | 114,874 | 5,546,078 | 5,660,952 |
September 2022 | 117,671 | 5,566,557 | 5,684,229 |
October 2022 | 122,293 | 5,608,895 | 5,731,191 |
November 2022 | 117,397 | 5,639,386 | 5,756,783 |
December 2022 | 119,744 | 5,660,360 | 5,780,103 |
January 2023 | 118,395 | 5,681,209 | 5,799,601 |
February 2023 | 113,352 | 5,722,976 | 5,836,324 |
March 2023 | 120,086 | 5,733,100 | 5,853,189 |
Source: Stat-Xplore, Department for Work and Pensions
Notes:
- The sanction indicator for claimants can take the following values: Yes - Claimants payment is being reduced due to a sanction; No - Claimants payment is not being reduced due to a sanction.
- Statistical disclosure control has been applied to this table to avoid the release of confidential data. Totals may not sum due to the disclosure control applied.
- Statistics for Universal Credit Sanctions relate to the second Thursday of each month.
- These statistics include those sanctions which subsequently go on to be overturned. Claimants whose sanction is overturned will be repaid any deduction.
The information requested for average and total amount of benefit reduced due to sanction is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Information for part 3) suspensions is not readily available and to provide these would be at disproportionate cost.