UNIVERSAL CREDIT SPLIT PAYMENTS

That this House notes that the charities Women's Aid, Child Poverty Action Group, Surviving Economic Abuse and the Women's Budget Group have expressed concern regarding paying the combined universal credit payment of a couple into a single bank account; believes that paying recipient couples one joint payment, rather than individually, puts domestic abuse victims at increased risk of financial coercion and may prevent their leaving an abusive relationship; further notes that the current guidance stipulates that split payments are only available in very exceptional circumstances despite domestic abuse being a common occurrence, with 100 calls to police relating to domestic abuse every hour, and calls for universal credit payments to be split between adults in households by default as research by Women's Aid demonstrates that almost 85 per cent of women in abusive relationships feel that requesting a split payment would trigger even greater abuse; has considered evidence that payments for children that are paid to the main carer have a greater likelihood of being spent on the children; and calls on the Government to make split payments the default.