Written question asked by Lord Field of Birkenhead (Independent (affiliation)) on Friday, 28 June 2019, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 2 July 2019. It was answered by Lord Sharma (Conservative) on Monday, 15 July 2019 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Social Security Benefits

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2019 to Question 268401, what information she holds on the reasons why those 156,000 claimants with deductions from universal credit for non-universal credit debts are not repaying their debts.

Answer

The table below provides information on why the specified claimants were not repaying their debts.

Zero balance**	92,776
Business as usual/head of work (Includes future instalment confirmation)	48,196
Awaiting Financial Reconciliation	12,452
In progress – Awaiting further information (e.g. customer correspondence/contact)	4,214
Managed by external contractor (Debt collection agency)	618
Awaiting appeal outcome	534
Waiting for customer to call back	306
Other	477

*The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar data subsequently released by the Department.

** The zero balance category is made up of debts that have been fully repaid, but are yet to be removed from the Debt Manager system. It is important to note that no further recovery action will be taken in these cases

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 270705
Session: 2017-19
Related items: Social Security Benefits
Thursday, 27 June 2019
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Debts Social security benefits Repayments
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk

Social Security Benefits

Secondary information

Librarians' tools