PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Universal Credit: Key Workers (10 July 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has any plans to exclude one-time bonus payments for key workers in calculations for universal credit in recognition of their contribution to the response to the covid-19 outbreak.

Asked by:
Jonathan Reynolds (Labour)

The Government recognises that key workers have kept our country running throughout the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, from doctors and nurses to supermarket assistants and delivery drivers. All have played a vital part that we are truly grateful for.

A Universal Credit (UC) award is calculated on the basis of the set benefit rate against money coming in to ensure fairness of treatment for all claimants against the money that they have earned in each individual assessment period. This means, as earnings increase, UC is gradually reduced. This is a long-standing principle of means-tested benefits.

Bonuses are earnings for all workers and are treated in the same way as any other earnings. This is already true for tax and other purposes, regardless of whether or not an individual is claiming a benefit. All earnings are subject to the taper rate and the UC award is calculated on that basis.

Answered by:
Will Quince (Conservative)
15 July 2020