Recommendation 138

Another barrier to people signing up to Scottish Choices is that claimants cannot access the choices immediately, instead having to wait until they have received their first Universal Credit payment before taking up one or both options. Citizens Advice Scotland highlighted to our predecessor Committee on their inquiry on welfare policy in Scotland that this can cause particular problems for claimants who opt for twice-monthly payments as they only receive half of their Universal Credit award at the end of their second month on Universal Credit; they then have to wait a further fifteen days for the second half of their payment to come through to their account.337