Universal Credit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his written statement of 5 December 2013, Official Report, columns 65-6WS, on universal credit, what budget he has allocated to the new digital service for universal credit. 

Esther McVey: Costs for the future development of the digital service remain subject to on-going commercial discussions.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent on the existing universal credit pathfinder sites. 

Esther McVey: The most recent estimate of the cost of existing universal credit pathfinder sites is set out in the NAO report Universal Credit: Early progress, HC 621, published on 5 September 2013.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much the freezing of universal credit work allowances will save.

Esther McVey: Disregards in existing income based benefits are generally not uprated year on year. The £5 earnings disregard in Income Support has been at this level for at least 25 years. In universal credit, new work allowances will improve financial work incentives for many people. For example, in 2018-19, the work allowance for a single person over 25, without children, is projected to be £25.60 per week as compared to the current JSA disregard of £5 per week (2013-14 prices). The work allowance rates will be fixed for the first three years, to uprate them by 1% for those three years would lead to an additional cost in the region of £300 million in 2018-19 (2013-14 prices).