The government has been found to be still deducting money from people’s Universal Credit to pay their utility bills, despite them losing a legal case concerning deductions being taken from other benefits.

Roll back to 2022 High Court judges judged that this payment scheme which allows money to be taken from people claiming benefits to pay energy bills, was unlawful if the claimant had not been consulted first.

However it comes as no surprise that the ruling did not cover people claiming Universal Credit. Thousands of people are are still having money taken from their payments without consulting with claimants to see if they can afford to pay them.

This leaves them with far less money to cover their bills and everyday expenses.

The government unsurprisingly says the policy is fair after all their not struggling financially are they.

The government said that the repayment scheme protected people from the potential consequences of not paying bills which includes and is not exclusive to homelessness, service disconnections, potential court actions.

All of which will still occur because taking payment deductions without consulting the claimant will still result in all of the above.

It’s totally unfair, the repayment decisions don’t take into account a person’s ability to afford this and undoubtedly push people further into poverty.


Under the governments repayment policy, private utility companies and others can apply to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for up to 25% of a person’s benefits to be paid directly to them – to repay a debt and meet ongoing usage costs.

That’s a hell of a lot of money to be taken from a persons payments. Many claimants have more than one debt being taken from their payments.

It’s unfair and cruel, it’s already a struggle to get by due to the cost of living and energy payment crises.

Court Ruling

In september last year (2022), a disabled former Leicestershire police constable won a High Court case against the government scheme.

The court ruling is applied to some claimants on legacy benefits eg jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) and income-related employment and support allowance (ESA).

But the devil’s in the detail isn’t it. The ruling does not apply to people claiming Universal Credit.

No surprise really, there’s no way they’d want this to apply to UC claimants. It’s a cruel, harsh system and they don’t want it making life easier for them.

However following another separate legal change, which took effect in April 2022, households receiving Universal Credit. This legal change states that claimants must now be asked to agree to new deductions for ongoing usage costs for electricity or gas.

But once again the DWP is taking full advantage of this decision. It’s a request and not a legal requirement to ask for consent for new deductions for electricity or gas and water bills that are in arrears.

So they give with one hand and take more away. Surprise surprise.

In figures released in November 2022 to the BBC show that around 431,800 automatic deductions were in place from households receiving Universal Credit for utilities bills. A Freedom of Information request by BBC News has found 221,000 of those were for arrears.

In June, the DWP lost an appeal against the High Court ruling and is now allowing people the chance to submit representations before new deductions are made from legacy benefits.

It says it doesn’t plan to retrospectively seek consent from anyone already having money deducted.

The DWP have told BBC news that they don’t make any money from administering third party deductions.

The final costs of contesting the judicial review and appeal with Ms Timson were not yet known.

I expect the government to continue to contest this decision at every step, after all their priorities don’t lie with people living in poverty. There’s always enough money for this

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