Written statement on the rollout of Universal Credit

Alok Sharma (Department for Work and Pensions): The Implementation of Universal Credit continues to make good progress. The full service is now operating in 250 jobcentres and we expect to complete national coverage and be in all jobcentres as planned by December 2018.

Within this timetable, I am announcing today some modifications to reflect local considerations and discussions.

We continue to make progress in delivering a Welsh language capability within the full service. Whilst it has always been possible to speak to DWP in Welsh, either in jobcentres or on the telephone, and to have dialogue in Welsh on online journals, we want to be able to offer full Welsh functionality as soon as we can for those areas of Wales with the highest density of Welsh speakers. In order to increase the chances that functionality will be in place in time with local rollout, we are moving the 13 jobcentres with the highest density of Welsh speakers to December 2018.

In addition, Barrow Council have asked if their rollout date could be changed to December to reflect the fact that they are bringing their Housing Benefit administration back in-house and they would like to sequence that change before Universal Credit rolls out. This is sensible planning and we have agreed to meet that request.

Finally, in order to balance resources more effectively within DWP we are making several other modifications to the rollout timetable, as set out in the table I have attached to this statement.

We will modify the master schedule on gov.uk to reflect these changes. District Managers are contacting local stakeholders about these changes and writing to their local MPs with details.