Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the ability of employees paid weekly to meet their living costs in the period between becoming unemployed and receiving their first payment of universal credit.

Priti Patel

Where a claimant’s earnings or income is insufficient to meet their living costs and in order to safeguard against financial hardship before the first Universal Credit (UC) payment, an advance payment of up to 50% of their UC award may be made.

Personal Budgeting Support advice is also available to all claimants.