Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how existing overpayments will be handled in the managed migration from Working Tax Credits to Universal Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
When a claimant’s tax credit claim is closed, for whatever reason, including a move to Universal Credit, the debt is transferred to the Department’s Debt Management team.
Once Universal Credit is in payment, the overpayment will be recovered in line with the Universal Credit regulations.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households with deductions in (a) Universal Credit and (b) other social benefit payments for benefit overpayments are on a repayment schedule of (i) zero to six, (ii) six to 12, (iii) 12 to 18 months, (iv) 18 to 24 months and (v) more than 24 months in the most recent month for which data is available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for the most recent 12-month period for which this information is available, how many claims for Universal Credit were subject to deductions for (a) new claims advances, (b) change of circumstances advances, (c) budgeting advances, (d) tax credit overpayments, (e) Universal Credit overpayments and (f) any combination of the above; and for each type of deduction, what was the average value of the deduction.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The requested information is provided in the separate spreadsheet.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for cases in the past year where Universal Credit has been reduced due to historical overpayment of tax credits due to official error, what the average debt was that each recipient was required to repay.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Tax Credit overpayments deemed by HMRC to be caused by official error are not transferred to the DWP for recovery where a customer makes a claim for Universal Credit.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the oldest debt was incurred for cases in which Universal Credit was reduced due to historical overpayment of tax credits due to an error made by an official in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Tax Credit overpayments deemed by HMRC to be caused by official error are not transferred to the DWP for recovery where a customer makes a claim for Universal Credit.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants had their Universal Credit reduced due to a historical overpayment of tax credits due to an error made by an official in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Tax Credit overpayments deemed by HMRC to be caused by official error are not transferred to the DWP for recovery where a customer makes a claim for Universal Credit.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2023 to Question 161211 on Universal Credit: Coronavirus, how much was not collected in deductions from Universal Credit as a result of the suspension of deductions during the covid-19 pandemic in the period between January 2020 and January 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and in agreement with His Majesty’s Treasury and the Chancellor, debt recovery was paused for 3 months from April 2020.
Due to the number of variables involved, and taking account of the phased reintroduction of debt recovery, we cannot accurately provide details of the amount not collected in deductions from Universal Credit for the period January 2020 to January 2021.
The department continues to have a well-established process for working with individuals to support them to manage their debts; this might result in agreeing a reduced rate of deduction or, in exceptional cases, suspending repayments. Individuals impacted by the pandemic may have contacted the department seeking a reduction in, or suspension of, their rate of repayment, had the department not suspended all recovery.
Processing of newly identified overpayments was also suspended, and we are unable to accurately estimate the rate of repayment that would have been negotiated given the impact of the pandemic.
Additionally, as we recommenced recovery, changes to individual circumstances may have led to a lower rate of repayment than was in place prior to the pandemic.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many universal credit claims were subject to deductions in the most recent month for which data is available, broken down by parliamentary constituency; how much was the (1) total, and (2) average sum of, deductions in each constituency; what proportion of those sums was deducted to repay advance payments; and how many universal credit claimants were subject to deductions as a result of overpayments where the fault lay entirely with the relevant government department or agency.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Noble Peer to the answers I gave on the 3rd and 6th of March to questions HL5652 and HL5656.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish their evidence review on the drivers of food bank usage; and whether they have considered the potential merits of including the need to use a food bank, alongside undue hardship, in the criteria which may exempt claimants from having deductions taken from their universal credit claim.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department reallocated resources to prioritise work to help the COVID-19 effort. This caused delays to some work, including this literature review. The department has subsequently decided not to restart the review, as it summarises publicly available information and does not contain any new research carried out by the Department. However, we continue to monitor new research and evidence produced by external organisations.
The Department has recently published new data from the Family Resources Survey on household food security, giving us a better understanding of who is most at risk. We have also included new questions in the family resources survey for 2021/2 which will be published in March 2023 and further expand our evidence in this area. This underlines how seriously we take the issue of food insecurity.
The Government recognises the importance of supporting claimants to manage their liabilities. Under Universal Credit, there is a co-ordinated approach to deductions from benefit, which supports claimants to manage their financial obligations. The primary aim of deductions in Universal Credit is to protect vulnerable claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services. We continue to aim to strike the right balance between ensuring those protections are in place and allowing claimants to retain as much of their award as possible for day-to-day needs.
There has been no specific consideration around the merits of including food bank usage when considering claimants for an exception from deductions. However, if a claimant is struggling financially, they can ask for the amount of the following deductions to be reconsidered:
For benefit overpayments and Social Fund loans, deductions can be reduced or deferred for a period. DWP will always try to ensure that Government debt is recovered effectively without causing undue hardship.
For rent arrears, claimants can ask Universal Credit staff to exercise their discretion to fix rent arrears deductions at the lowest rate in legislation – 10% of the Standard Allowance. This can be done using the Journal or by phone. However, staff would not agree to remove a rent arrears deduction entirely in order to ensure a claimant is protected from eviction.
For those repaying a New Claim Advance, a deferral of up to 3 months is available, in exceptional circumstances, which allow those claimants to temporarily receive their Universal Credit awards without advance repayments being deducted.
We encourage anyone unable to afford the proposed rate of repayment to contact DWP Debt Management at the earliest opportunity - all DWP notifications advise how to get in touch. We seek to do as much as we are able to support claimants through the recovery of their overpayments.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit (a) underpayments and (b) overpayments were made due to errors by his Department in each year since 2019.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The department’s national statistics on ‘Fraud and Error in the Benefit System’ include estimates of UC official errors overpaid and underpaid. This is expressed in terms of both value, and as a percentage of cases with error.
To be clear, the percentages of cases with error reflects the average cases incorrect at one time, rather than the total number of errors over the whole year. We express this as a percentage, rather than as a whole number.
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2021 to 2022 estimates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Year | Estimated percentage of UC cases with underpayments caused by Official Error | Estimated UC expenditure underpaid due to Official Error | Estimated percentage of UC cases with overpayments caused by Official Error | Estimated UC expenditure overpaid due to Official Error |
2019/20 | 2.6% | 0.5% (£90 million) | 4.1% | 1.3% (£250 million) |
2020/21 | 1.7% | 0.4% (£140 million) | 2.2% | 0.9% (£330 million) |
2021/22 | 2.3% | 0.3% (£140 million) | 2.6% | 0.7% (£270 million) |
The DWP has taken significant steps to ensure the accuracy of benefit payments and the vast majority of benefit expenditure is paid correctly. Our Targeted Case Review initiative will review 2 million UC cases over the next 5 years, checking entitlement and helping ensure people are getting the right amount of benefit.
The department remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with benefit debt deductions and encourages customers experiencing hardship to contact the DWP to discuss their repayment plan.