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Universal Credit: Fines

Answer

The information is provided 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 value of UC claims with a court fines deduction
Nov-18	7,000	1%	£5,600,000
Dec-18	7,000	1%	£6,000,000
Jan-19	8,000	1%	£6,200,000
Feb-19	8,000	1%	£6,600,000
Mar-19	13,000	1%	£9,800,000
Apr-19	37,000	2%	£26,100,000
May-19	61,000	3%	£43,400,000
Jun-19	82,000	4%	£59,300,000
Jul-19	101,000	5%	£74,100,000
Aug-19	111,000	5%	£82,700,000
Sep-19	116,000	5%	£87,200,000
Oct-19	113,000	5%	£85,300,000
Nov-19	108,000	5%	£79,100,000
Dec-19	112,000	5%	£83,000,000
Jan-20	116,000	5%	£85,900,000
Feb-20	122,000	5%	£90,800,000
Mar-20	126,000	5%	£94,300,000
Apr-20	68,000	2%	£53,600,000
May-20	71,000	2%	£63,700,000
Jun-20	139,000	3%	£125,500,000
Jul-20	126,000	3%	£114,900,000
Aug-20	120,000	3%	£108,700,000

Notes

1.Claim figures rounded to the nearest 1,000, payments to the nearest £100,000.

2. Total value of Universal Credit claims reflects the amount of money paid to claimants and their landlords as part of their award, including the amount which they would have been entitled to had it not been deducted/sanctioned. It does not include other payments such as advances and hardship payments.

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

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

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, and total deducted 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.

8.During June 2020, third party deductions were reinstated but other deductions (for benefit overpayments etc.) were still suspended. This led to an increase in the total deducted for court fines, as a result of their place in the deductions priority order. From July 2020, other deductions began to be reinstated, following a phased approach.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

145768

Session

2019-21

Related items

Universal Credit: Fines
Friday, 22 January 2021
Written questions
House of Commons

Subjects

Deductions Fines Universal credit

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk