To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations to improve information provision for Universal Credit claimants in the report by the Child Poverty Action Group Computer says ‘No!' Stage one: information provision, published in May.

Universal Credit is designed to react and respond quickly to feedback from our stakeholders and claimants to improve the service we offer. This means that any report based on a view of the service at a given date may well be inaccurate only a short period afterwards.

This is the case with this Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) report. The report does not take into account recent changes to the Universal Credit Statement which ensures that claimants receive detailed information about any deductions which have been made to their Universal Credit award, including a clear breakdown of what each deduction is for. Consequently, the Department has written to CPAG about the report, outlining the up to date position on these issues and inviting CPAG and his Honour Judge Sir Stephen Sedley, who wrote the report’s foreword, to meet to discuss these matters.

The Department will continue to make improvements to Universal Credit to ensure that we provide claimants with the information they need to understand their Universal Credit award.