PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Universal Credit (23 November 2018)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect on claimants of universal credit of the 53 week rent year for many social housing tenants in 2019.

Asked by:
Karin Smyth (Labour)

Universal Credit is paid on a monthly cycle to reflect the fact that the vast majority of people receive their wages monthly. Many social landlords still expect their tenants to pay rent on a weekly basis, a practice based upon a time when both wages and benefits were paid weekly. The effect of this is that, roughly every six years, there will be 53 payment days in a twelve-month period with the result that, over the cycle, the average social sector tenant will receive approximately 35p a week less towards their rent. A key principle of Universal Credit is that it simplifies the benefit system for working age claimants and re-assessing housing costs to reflect the number of rent payments in any particular year would be complicated and lead to confusion.

Answered by:
Justin Tomlinson (Conservative)
29 November 2018