Universal Credit

Department for Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 26 March 2019.

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Photo of Karen Buck Karen Buck Labour, Westminster North

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of universal credit claimants affected by the benefit cap who will face over payment recovery action because of a delay in applying the cap to their initial monthly payments.

Photo of Karen Buck Karen Buck Labour, Westminster North

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the benefit cap for universal credit claimants is backdated to the date of the original claim rather than applied from the date of notification as with people whose housing benefit is subject to the benefit cap.

Photo of Justin Tomlinson Justin Tomlinson The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

The department does not readily hold the data requested.

As Universal Credit simplifies the benefits system, all of the necessary information to decide whether or not to apply the benefit cap is held in one place. Therefore, the benefit cap calculation is not in practice being backdated, rather it is encompassed in the overall Universal Credit assessment.

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