More than 70 per cent of universal credit ‘declarations’ made in the early phase of the coronavirus lockdown resulted in a payment of benefit

DWP Minister reports that the proportion of new claims which generated a payment actually rose in the first month of the COVID-19 emergency

More than 70 per cent of universal credit 'declarations' made in the early phase of the coronavirus lockdown resulted in a payment of benefit, the government has said.

In response to a parliamentary written question as to what proportion of claims for universal credit processed since 29 March 2020 have resulted in people not qualifying for a payment, DWP Minister Will Quince said -

'Between March 30th and April 19th there were 767,000 declarations made to Universal Credit, all of which are processed. Of these -

• 71 per cent have received a UC payment
• 13 per cent had a nil award due to earnings
• 7 per cent were withdrawn by the claimant
• 9 per cent closed due to ineligibility
• 1 per cent have outstanding verification preventing payment

The proportion of new claims which generated a Universal Credit payment therefore actually rose in the first month of the emergency, when compared to the January and February figures.'

NB - Mr Quince added that there are a number of reasons why someone might not be eligible to receive universal credit, will have received a nil award or withdrew their claim, including in the case of 'speculative' claims, claimants who found new employment (including being rehired under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme), those who received a redundancy payment or had their last month’s salary taken into account, those with excess capital, and claims found to be fraudulent.

Mr Quince's parliamentary written answer is available from Hansard.