Last month, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to ask how many and what proportion of working Universal Credit (UC) recipients are paid by their employers on a non-monthly cycle.

His reply (in full below) didn’t fully answer my question, but it did reveal that some 37% of working UC recipients are paid on a non-monthly cycle.

This is incredibly problematic for those who are not paid monthly. They see fluctuating pay packets, even though their earnings might remain the same. This makes it incredibly hard for those people and families to budget and manage their money effectively – especially at this time of year when the recipients are paid one month’s pay early at Christmas.

I will be calling on the Minister and the Department For Work and Pensions to look into this to see if a better, more efficient system can be put into place that helps UC recipients to receive a more consistent income.

Answer from the Minister.

The proportion of working Universal Credit recipients who are paid in a non-monthly-cycles is 37.0%.

Notes:

1. Percentages have been rounded to 1 decimal place.
2. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Real Time Earnings (RTE) data has been used to identify pay frequency and number of employers. This does not include self-reported or self-employed earnings.
3. Pay frequency as reported by the employer has been used to determine pay cycle.
4. Category ‘Non-Monthly Pay Cycle’ includes those claimants paid weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly or another non-monthly pay cycle
5. UC claimants present in the UC Household Statistics in August 2021 have been included, some of these will have zero entitlement due to earnings.
6. Only Great Britain UC claimants are included in the breakdown.
7. Most recent data of August 2021 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.
8. Figures are provisional and subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.