Universal Credit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 24 April 2012, Official Report, column 794W, on universal credit, what options he is considering to ensure that universal credit is payable to people without a bank account.

Chris Grayling: Wherever possible, universal credit will be paid directly into a claimant's bank or building society account. Facilities such as direct debits and standing orders are important tools for helping claimants to managing their benefit payments and for gaining access to discounts for household bills which are especially important for those on low incomes. We are working with a range of banking and financial product providers to encourage more claimants to use a bank account for managing their earnings and benefit income.  For those claimants who cannot access any form of bank account the Department has signed a seven year contract with Citibank, working in partnership with PayPoint to provide a new Simple Payment service as an alternative to cheque payments. The Simple Payment service is based on the electronic transfer of funds in the same way that the BACS system works for direct payment into a bank/building society account and has been designed specifically for those people who are unable to make use of mainstream bank accounts.