Universal Credit claimants may have a certain amount of debt which may force the government to utilise the third party deduction scheme. A creditor can apply to have money taken from the claimants Universal Credit payment to cover the debt.

Under the current rules, a person can never get more than three third party deductions at a time.

On top of this, the amount deducted should be no more than 30 percent of the standard allowance.

However, in a recent announcement the DWP confirmed that it will be “pausing” third party deductions until May 10.

The DWP confirmed this with the following comments: “We have received an unprecedented number of new benefit claims and have streamlined our operations to make sure people get the support they need during this time.