Pausing Advance Payment deductions from UC
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
It was suggested at the recent Work and Pensions Committee virtual meeting that UC and or JCP staff had the ability to manually stop or pause deductions of UC Advance Payments from claimants UC payments. Please provide details of the internal operational processes that are followed to pause the AP deductions, who follows them with their Job Titles and copies of screenshots that show what parts of the UC system are used to implement the pause. Together with copies of internal guidance and policies on these matters.
Is it possible to pause AP deductions for more than 3 months? Noting:
"You can ask for your repayments to be delayed for up to 3 months if you can’t afford them. This is only allowed in exceptional circumstances."
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-cr...
What are the "exceptional circumstances"?
Accept covid19 crisis and redeployment of DWP staff and resources, means the DWP will need more time to respond to this information request.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Zola
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Our ref: FOI2020/20319
Contact email: [1][email address]
Dear Frank Zola,
Thank you for your request for information which was received on 25th
April. Your request is being considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.
You can normally expect a response to your FoI request within 20 working
days. However due to the current situation with COVID-19 it may not be
possible for us to reply to you within this timeframe.
The DWP will make every effort to respond to FOIs as we would usually but
the current situation may mean that available Departmental resources are
needed on other high priority areas.
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedent ed situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact the department
using the email address and reference number above.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
Department for Work and Pensions
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