Universal Credit applications approach one million in two weeks
Around 950,000 people have made successful Universal Credit (UC) applications in the two weeks between 16 and 31 March, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed.
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That compares with the circa 100,000 applications the government would expect to receive during a normal two-week period, a DWP representative told Social Housing.
The nearly one million applications received in the fortnight since the government introduced its first lockdown measures on 16 March is five times higher than the equivalent peak volumes (for Jobseeker’s Allowance) during the financial crisis, according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation published yesterday.
The DWP does not routinely publish up-to-date application numbers, but internal figures shared at a select committee meeting on 25 March revealed that the government had processed nearly half a million claims in the preceding nine days, with 100,000 received on 24 March alone.
According to official government statistics, the number of claims made in the four weeks to 9 January 2020 was 160,000.
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Tweeting yesterday, secretary of state for work and pensions Therese Coffey said: “Universal Credit is standing up to the challenge as nearly a million people have made a claim in the last fortnight and our tremendous [DWP] civil servants are working flat out to process them.
“We know our phonelines and IT systems are busy, but rest assured that we are all on it.”
The DWP said last week that it is “redeploying 10,000 staff to the frontline” to help new claimants get their benefits on time. It has also said it expects to hire an additional 1,500 extra people to support its efforts.
In their analysis, the Resolution Foundation report authors note: “To the [DWP’s] credit, Universal Credit’s systems have not fallen over, despite being hit by a shock no one can have foreseen.”
They added: “The DWP’s triple goals going forward, having already increased the generosity of UC, should be to encourage claims, process them as quickly as possible, and make swift payments to families hit by this crisis.”
The report said that the extremely high levels of new applications seen are likely to have been largely caused by the “almost overnight” impact of announcing restrictions on businesses and individuals. This, it said, should provide “some hope that the volume of claims should soon fall from the current unprecedented highs, even if it remains elevated above both normal times or those seen during the financial crisis”.
But it added: “We are only just beginning to see the economic effect of coronavirus, meaning there will be more redundancies and many more UC claims to come. So, the DWP should continue to do what it takes to ensure that people can claim UC as easily, and as quickly, as possible, in particular by continuing to redeploy staff away from lesser priorities.”
In a statement to Social Housing, a DWP spokesperson said: “We are moving 10,000 staff to help on the frontline, having processed around 950,000 claims in the last two weeks.
“The prime minister and chancellor have repeatedly encouraged people to claim Universal Credit if their income has been affected, and we keep our website up to date with specific coronavirus information to help people.
“Urgent advances are available and more than 70,000 new claimants since 16 March have already received one. We’ve also increased the standard allowance so claimants will be up to £1,040 a year better off.”
The government has announced a series of extensions to UC as part of a package of measures to support individuals and the economy through the outbreak.
On 20 March, chancellor Rishi Sunak said that the standard allowance for UC would be increased by £1,000 per year for the next 12 months, with the Working Tax Credit basic element of the scheme increasing by the same amount. The changes will come into effect on Monday, 6 April.
On 26 March, he announced that self-employed workers would have access “in full” to UC.
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