Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to ensure that local councils in England do not count Universal Credit Transitional Protection as income when calculating council tax payment in cases prior to 10 November 2025.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Councils are responsible for designing local council tax support schemes for working age people in consultation with their residents. The Government is aware of the variations in the way schemes assess legacy benefits, Universal Credit and transitional protection payments. The Government has recently written to billing authorities on this issue, encouraging them to reflect on the impact of their approach on low-income households. The letter can be found here.
Councils also have discretion, under section 13A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, to provide council tax discounts where they consider this appropriate.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many young people aged 16-24 are claiming the Universal Credit health element while in full-time non-advanced education under Universal Credit rules.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Universal Credit Statistics updated on 17 March 2026 showing people with indefinite leave to remain were 2.7% of Universal Credit claims, whether his Department holds other information of migrants claiming benefits.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest statistics showing the percentage of people on Universal Credit in Great Britain by immigration status were published on 17 February 2026, and reported that in January 2026 the percentage of people on Universal Credit in Great Britain with the immigration status of indefinite leave to remain was 2.6%.
Information relating to other benefits is not held on digital systems, in a way that allows it to be extracted for the publication as official statistics.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit households in the most recent quarter for which data is available are undergoing a third party deduction for the purpose of paying a court fine.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Around 250,000 Universal Credit households had at least one third party deduction for court fines in the quarter ending in November 2025.
Notes:
1. Figures have been calculated by identifying Universal Credit households with at least one thirdparty deduction for court fines during any month within the quarter. Households with a court fines deduction in more than one month of the quarter have been counted once only, to reflect the number of unique households affected during the period.
2. Data up to November 2025 has been provided in line with the latest available Universal Credit Deductions Statistics.
3. Figures have been provided for Universal Credit households in Great Britain.
4. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
5. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 10,000.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce rates of child poverty in working families in (a) Yeovil constituency, (b) Somerset and (c) England.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest statistics for 2024/25 show that over seven in ten children in poverty are in working families. ‘Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty’, published in December 2025, sets out Government’s commitment to tackling child poverty, including in working households.
Measures include the removal of the two child limit in Universal Credit, which will lift 450,000 children out of poverty. Alongside other measures set out in the Strategy, including extending Free School Meals to all children in households in receipt of Universal Credit, will reduce child poverty by 550,000 in the final year of this Parliament, the largest reduction over a Parliament since comparable records began.
This comes alongside raising the National Living Wage to £12.71 an hour to boost the pay of 2.4 million workers, tripling our investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million and investing £39 billion in social and affordable housing.
Providing the right employment support can help parents progress in work. That is why the UK Government is driving forward labour market interventions that will deliver a step-change in support and help parents to enter and progress in work.
Since September 2025, eligible working parents of children from 9 months old living in England have been able to access 30 hours of Government-funded childcare. Working parents on Universal Credit can receive 85% of childcare costs and 100% of any upfront costs and, we announced that childcare support through Universal Credit would be extended to help with the childcare costs for all children, rather than being capped at two.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has considered commissioning independent advice, including from people with direct experience of living on a low income, on the adequacy of Universal Credit’s standard allowance.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in receipt of Universal Credit have a total gross household income, including earnings and other income, within the (a) £0–£20,000, (b) £20,001–£40,000, (c) £40,001–£60,000, (d) £60,001–£80,000, (e) £80,001–£100,000, (f) £100,001–£120,000, (g) £120,001–£140,000 and (h) £140,000+ band.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the publication of Trussell’s End of Year food bank stats, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Universal Credit’s standard allowance covers essential costs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: John Grady (Labour - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to improve service accessibility for deaf claimants who also have additional support needs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is committed to pursuing a just, equal, and inclusive society, ensuring independence and control for everyone, including our deaf customers.
Customers can communicate with us using Relay UK. We also offer email as a reasonable adjustment as well as a range of different (or alternative) formats such as Easy Read, which uses succinct and simplified language combined with images to convey information about government benefits and services.
UC customers can also communicate with us using the UC journal.
As a department we continue to recognise the importance and value of British Sign Language. We take our commitments seriously and are continuously seeking ways to improve the BSL services we offer.
We’re almost one year into our BSL 5-year plan and have made good progress against our goals. This includes:
For customers with additional support needs, the department offers a wide range of reasonable adjustments, including a visiting service for vulnerable customers who are unable to use our other contact routes, and support from Disability Employment Advisors within our jobcentres.
We continue to review our services and make improvements to ensure they are accessible and responsive to customer needs.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish figures for the percentage of Universal Credit claimants who are working, broken down by hourly increments, in each of the past five years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Statistics on the number of people on Universal Credit are regularly published on Stat-Xplore, with the latest statistics by employment status available to February 2026. As there is no limit to how many hours a person can work and still get Universal Credit, information on the number of hours worked for those in employment is not collated.