Half of those on universal credit are losing money on every payment because of automatic deductions by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), according to research.
Claimants are losing £1 in every £13 of basic payment to repay debts to private landlords and utility companies and correct mistakes made by the tax office, said the New Economics Foundation (NEF), a left-leaning thinktank. Each household with money deducted lost an average of £63 a month. This amounted to a total loss of £1.3bn from benefits support in 2022-23, NEF found through a series of parliamentary questions.
