Does anyone know when verify online was introduced for Universal Credit claims? 

I am talking about the online ID checks you can do via •Barclays, Digidentity, Experian, etc.

A rough date will do, or an exact date with a reference even better!

Thanks comrades.

EKS

I think it was April 2016 - been trawling through the minutes of the GDS GOV.UK.Verify Privacy and Consumer Advisory Group -

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/privacy-and-consumer-advisory-group#minutes

The February 2016 minutes say that Verify on target to go live in April 2016 and having good discussions with DWP about universal credit - later minutes seem to give number of government services that have gone on to Verify but don’t mention UC specifically. However, UC was always meant to be one of Verify’s biggest customers and I think it would have been noted if hadn’t joined when service went live.

It was apparently in public beta for UC in February 2016, so some claimants may have used it from then:
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewreply/42384/

Edit: here is an archived version of the Verify info on gov.uk published 7 December 2015, which states:

Currently it’s being tested with users and these departments and services:

[...]
Apply for Universal Credit, with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

The internet archive’s previous snapshot is October 2015, which did not mention UC.

Ros & Jon, thanks v much.

As far as I can tell it was in public beta (limited to 2 postcodes) from March 2015.

https://identityassurance.blog.gov.uk/2015/11/02/government-services-using-gov-uk-verify-november-2015-update/