Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Conclusion 21
Third Report: Universal Credit: the wait for a first payment
Published 19 Oct 2020
Paragraph 109
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Universal Credit: the wait for a first payment All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
For this group of claimants, the burden of future repayments of Advances is likely to be particularly difficult to bear. Given that benefits broadly provide people with a subsistence level of income, any system that reduces that monthly income, including through repaying an advance, is very likely to cause people difficulty. The Department already plans to extend the repayment period for Advances from 12 to 24 months, and to reduce the cap on deductions from an award of Universal Credit to 25% of the Universal Credit Standard Allowance. But even a 25% cap leaves claimants receiving substantially less than a subsistence level of income. And these changes will not happen until October 2021—some three years after they were first announced. The Minister says that he would love to be able to do this sooner, but cannot because of constraints in the Universal Credit build programme: : a clear case of “computer says no”.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Third Report: Universal Credit: the wait for a first payment (HC 204), paragraph 109, 19 October 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 12 January 2021 (deadline 19 December 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government notes the Committee's report and, in the sections summarised here, declines to adopt most of its main recommendations, saying that advances mean "No one has to wait five weeks for a payment".
- On research into the impact of the wait, the Department states that it "will not be conducting nor commissioning any research", saying resources were reallocated to the COVID-19 response.
- On a starter payment, the Government says there "is not a need for a starter payment in UC" because New Claim Advances are available, and cites increased fraud risk. It says it will "not be introducing" more frequent payments by default.
- On the deduction cap, it points to the lowering from 30% to 25% of the standard allowance, "effective from October 2021", and says further lowering "would not be an effective way to protect vulnerable claimants".
- It states that it "does not agree that monthly updates" on Work Coach recruitment are appropriate, but will ensure "relevant updates" are supplied to Parliament. It also reports a commitment to increase Work Coaches by 13,500 by end of March 2021.