Universal Credit – Parliamentary Oral Question

Baroness Scott of Needham Market: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the regime for universal credit will limit the number of hours of volunteer activity which can be undertaken by a claimant

Lord Freud: Claimants can undertake as many hours undertaking voluntary work as they want but for the purposes of UC we can only allow up to 50% of their expected hours of work as a relevant deduction against their work-search activities for the week. The maximum expected hours of work search per week under UC will be 35 hours. This means the maximum we can allow as a relevant deduction against their expected hours of work is 17.5 hours per week.