Guidance

Get help with your Universal Credit claim

How to get help to understand and make a Universal Credit claim, and get help managing your claim.

From:
Department for Work and Pensions
Published
3 July 2025

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

You can:

  • get help to understand and make a Universal Credit claim
  • take someone with you to attend a jobcentre appointment
  • give explicit consent for someone to get advice and information about your claim

Get help to understand and make a Universal Credit claim 

You can get free support from trained Citizens Advice advisers to understand and make a Universal Credit claim. This is called ‘Help to Claim’. 

They can help you: 

  • work out if you can get Universal Credit 
  • fill in the Universal Credit application  
  • prepare for your first jobcentre appointment  
  • check your first payment is correct 

Help to Claim support is confidential. They will not share your personal information unless you agree. 

Take someone with you to attend a jobcentre appointment 

You can take someone with you, such as a friend or relative, to your jobcentre appointment if you need support. 

You must tell Universal Credit in advance, and explain why you need support. 

To tell Universal Credit, you can: 

You can give permission to allow someone to: 

  • get advice and information about your claim 
  • have access to relevant information about you 

This is known as giving ‘explicit consent’. Explicit consent does not last forever. Your explicit consent lasts until the date you specify, or up to 6 months – whichever comes first. 

You can give explicit consent at any point during your claim. 

You can give explicit consent to someone: 

  • you have a genuine connection with, for example a family member, friend or neighbour 
  • from an organisation whose job it is to help 

If you do not want to give explicit consent, you can ask someone to call the Universal Credit helpline on your behalf. You will need to be with them to answer security questions and agree to any decisions. 

To give explicit consent for another person or organisation to get advice or information about your claim you can: 

You must: 

  • give consent for your personal information to be shared with them 
  • outline what information you want to be shared 
  • explain why the information is needed 
  • if they’re your family member, friend or neighbour, explain the person’s relationship to you  
  • if they’re from an organisation, give their name, organisation and branch, if applicable. If you cannot provide their name, be as specific as possible, for example give their job role or team name within the organisation 

You can withdraw your consent at any time. 

If there is any doubt about the identity of the person making the request, DWP will not give any information about your claim. 

Information Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will not give

The following information will never be given by DWP, even if you have given explicit consent: 

  • your address 
  • your date of birth 
  • your National Insurance number 
  • your bank details (sort code, account number, account holder name) 
  • your telephone numbers 
  • names of your household members 
  • names of your employers or former employers 

Information that can be given to social landlords

Social landlords are providers of social housing. These are usually councils or ‘not for profit’ housing associations. 

If you’re unable to manage your money or have fallen into rent arrears, you can arrange for your housing costs to be paid directly to your landlord. In Universal Credit this is called an ‘alternative payment arrangement’. 

The following information can be shared with social landlords without needing to give explicit consent: 

  • the claimant’s alternative payment arrangement information 
  • any relevant criminal history that you may have, for example anti-social behaviour or other behaviour adversely affecting the local area 

Social landlords will not be entitled to receive any personal data about you. All requests for information will be considered under the Data Protection Act. 

Social landlords may receive the following information: 

  • the start date of your housing payments being paid to the landlord 
  • when the landlord can expect to receive the first payment 
  • the amount of the next payment of the Universal Credit housing payment towards your rent 
  • if there have been any changes to the amount of housing costs to be paid (the reason for the changes will not be provided or discussed)

Information that can be given to private landlords

Private landlords usually own the property they are renting out.

They can be: 

  • a company that owns a lot of properties 
  • a person or family that owns one or more properties 

Private landlords can ask for their tenant’s Universal Credit housing costs to be paid directly to them without the need for explicit consent. 

You will be informed that the private landlord has requested that the Universal Credit housing costs be paid directly to them. 

If you are happy for your Universal Credit housing costs to be paid directly to the landlord, you do not need to reply to give your consent. 

The Universal Credit housing costs will then automatically be paid to the landlord each month. If you do not want the rent to be paid directly to the landlord, you can dispute this. 

You will need to provide evidence that you are not in rent arrears to dispute the alternative payment arrangement. 

Once the direct payment to the private landlord (the alternative payment arrangement) has been set up, the following information can be disclosed to the landlord: 

  • the start date of your housing payments being paid to the landlord 
  • when the landlord can expect to receive the first payment 
  • the amount of the next payment of your Universal Credit housing costs 
  • if there have been any changes to Universal Credit housing costs. The reason for the changes will not be provided or discussed 

A private landlord can act as a representative for a claimant but will always need your explicit consent to do so, unless it is for the specific purpose of requesting an alternative payment arrangement.

There are circumstances when DWP can share your information without explicit consent. These are: 

  • court orders 
  • legal gateways 
  • MPs engaging with Universal Credit on their constituent’s behalf 
  • public interest 

Court orders 

If a court order is in place, DWP does not need to get your consent to disclose the information requested. 

There is law which allows your personal information to be shared with an organisation if they are acting in a welfare capacity.

MPs engaging with Universal Credit on their constituent’s behalf 

Any correspondence, (letter, email or phone enquiries) about your Universal Credit will be answered directly to the MP without the need for your consent. However, it is common practice for MPs to include explicit consent from you when contacting the department in writing. 

Public interest 

Where it is in the best interests of the public, disclosure can be made without your consent, for example, if you have complex needs. These requests for disclosure will usually come from the police or social services.

When you contact Universal Credit to get advice or information about someone’s claim, you will need to confirm: 

  • the claimant’s full name 
  • the claimant’s address or date of birth 
  • what information the claimant has agreed to share 
  • the purpose for the information being shared 
  • your name or the organisation you belong to (where this applies) 

If there is any doubt about your identity, Universal Credit will not give any information about the claim.

You can apply for the right to make and manage a Universal Credit claim for someone who cannot manage their own affairs because they’re mentally incapable or severely disabled. To do this, you must have ‘written authority’. 

Find out more about managing someone’s claim for them.

Corporate appointees who manage multiple Universal Credit claims 

Usually, you need to provide a unique email address to set up a Universal Credit claim. If you’re a corporate appointee, you can register a single organisation email address to use across multiple claims. 

It must be a team email address, not an individual’s. Send the address to universalcredit.corporateappointeeengagementteam@dwp.gov.uk.  Do not send general enquires to this address - instead contact Universal Credit. 

After 2 weeks, you can use your team email address when you set up each claim.    

Or, if you already manage multiple claims, report a change of circumstances to change the email address for each claimant.

Updates to this page

Published 3 July 2025

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