Baroness Sherlock corrected a written answer on Universal Credit
Baroness Coffey (Conservative, Life peer) asked written question HL13381 on 8 January 2026. Baroness Sherlock answered on 26 January 2026 for the Department for Work and Pensions, and Baroness Sherlock corrected the answer on 9 February 2026. The correction replaced 12 figures (0.1 million, 0.9, 1.1, 1.2, 1.6, 1.9) with 1 figure (1,000). Altogether 561 words differ between the two versions.
The question
To ask His Majesty's Government how many households on Universal Credit in the most recent year for which data are available have received Universal Credit of (1) £0 per month; (2) less than £50 per month; (3) less than £100 per month.
Original and corrected answer
Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.
| Original | Corrected |
|---|---|
| Using the Table 1: Estimated number of households receiving Weekly gross income from all sources | Households with income less than weekly value (millions) | Households with income equal to or more than weekly value (millions) | Total £576.92 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 3.1 £673.08 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 3.1 £705.77 | 2.1 | 1.1 | 3.1 £769.23 | 2.2 | 0.9 | 3.1 Source: Stat-Xplore - Family Resources Survey Household Dataset Notes: Figures are rounded to the nearest 0.1 million. This rounding convention has been set to reflect that FRS estimates are based on survey data Figures have been extracted from the FRS Household dataset on Stat-Xplore by using the custom range functionality (which is available to registered users) on the Household total, gross income from all sources in latest prices (weekly, CPI adjusted real terms) data. If the weekly values chosen are received A household consists of one person living alone or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address, who share cooking facilities and share a living room or sitting room or dining area. A household will consist of one or more benefit units. The total gross income received by a household from all sources includes: Earnings from employment and self-employment Investment income Income from Retirement Pension plus any Income Support or Pension Credit paid with it Pension income Income from disability benefits Income from other benefits Income from Tax Credits Universal Credit income Remaining income Relative to administrative records, the FRS is known to under-report Universal Credit receipt by a third. Please refer to the M6A and M6B tables in the FRS Methodology and Standard Error data tables for further information. Further information can be found in the FRS Background Note and Methodology and the Family Resources Survey: quality assessment report . This answer goes beyond standard lines because while this information is publicly available, it has not been previously presented as a table in this format. | Using the data published on Stat-Xplore, the monthly amount paid to households on Universal Credit, and those not in payment, from September 2024 to August 2025 is shown in the attached table. This increase in the UC Caseload comes as people are moving off legacy benefits– a transition we inherited from the previous government, alongside a system with the wrong incentives that writes people off. This government is determined to fix this. That’s why we’re removing the financial incentives in Universal Credit that encourage inactivity, and as part of our wider plans to Get Britain Working we have redeployed 1,000 work coaches to help thousands of sick and disabled people who were previously left without contact for years. |
The question and answer on the Parliament website.
Related key figures
More on Baroness Sherlock.
Receipt
| Read from | https://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/1869740?expandMember=true |
|---|---|
| Date read | 15 October 2026 |
| SHA-256 | 9626cf4936e514534611bb6ae4afd3d8e711f356b979f48cfba1b427f592db79 |