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Universal Credit: Fines

Answer

We are unable to provide figures for court fine deductions for all of the last three years as improvements to third party data reporting commenced in November 2018. Information which is available can be found in the table below.

Month Payment Due	Number of claims with a deduction for court fines	Proportion of all claims with a deduction for court fines	Total number of UC claims made
Nov-18	7,000	1%	1,116,000
Dec-18	7,000	1%	1,256,000
Jan-19	8,000	1%	1,380,000
Feb-19	8,000	1%	1,481,000
Mar-19	13,000	1%	1,589,000
Apr-19	37,000	2%	1,681,000
May-19	61,000	3%	1,783,000
Jun-19	82,000	4%	1,864,000
Jul-19	101,000	5%	1,956,000
Aug-19	111,000	5%	2,046,000
Sep-19	116,000	5%	2,121,000
Oct-19	113,000	5%	2,218,000
Nov-19	108,000	5%	2,290,000
Dec-19	112,000	5%	2,367,000
Jan-20	116,000	5%	2,419,000
Feb-20	122,000	5%	2,502,000
Mar-20	126,000	5%	2,612,000
Apr-20	68,000	2%	3,073,000
May-20	71,000	2%	4,045,000
Jun-20	139,000	3%	4,302,000
Jul-20	126,000	3%	4,434,000
Aug-20	120,000	3%	4,537,000

Notes:

1. Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000.

2. Figures are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.

3. Claim numbers may not match official statistics caseloads due to small methodological differences.

4. Figures for court fine deductions are only available from November 2018 as data on the breakdown of third party deductions was not collated on the Universal Credit systems prior to this.

5. The increase in the proportion of claims with deductions for fines is due to an improved manual process phased in between February and the end of March 2019 for courts to send through their court fines deductions.

6. The decrease in number of claims with deductions for court fines from October 2019 is because the maximum deductions limit was reduced from 40% of the standard allowance to 30% of the standard allowance.

7. Figures for April and May 2020 are affected by the temporary suspension of third party deductions due to Covid-19.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

134402

Session

2019-21

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Subjects

Deductions Fines Universal credit

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk