Get help with your Universal Credit claim
Source: gov.uk (2025-12-03)

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

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.

Get Help to Claim if you live in England or Wales (https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/helptoclaim)

Get Help to Claim if you live in Scotland (https://www.cas.org.uk/helptoclaim)

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:
- use your journal in your Universal Credit account (https://www.gov.uk/sign-in-universal-credit)
- speak to your jobcentre contact or work coach
- call the Universal Credit helpline (https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/contact-universal-credit)
Give ‘explicit consent’ for someone to get advice and information about your claim

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 (https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/contact-universal-credit) on your behalf. You will need to be with them to answer security questions and agree to any decisions.

How to give explicit consent

To give explicit consent for another person or organisation to get advice or information about your claim you can:
- use your journal in your Universal Credit account (https://www.gov.uk/sign-in-universal-credit)
- speak to your jobcentre contact or work coach
- call the Universal Credit helpline (https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/contact-universal-credit)
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 are unable to manage your money or you have rent arrears, you or your landlord can ask for your rent to be paid directly to them. This is called a managed payment to landlord (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-alternative-payment-arrangements/alternative-payment-arrangements#managed-payment-to-landlord).

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
If you are unable to manage your money or you have rent arrears, you or your landlord can ask for your rent to be paid directly to them. This is called a managed payment to landlord (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-alternative-payment-arrangements/alternative-payment-arrangements#managed-payment-to-landlord).

Once the direct payment to the private landlord 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.

When DWP can share your information without consent

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.

Legal gateways

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.

If you’ve been given explicit consent

When you contact Universal Credit (https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/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.

Apply for the legal right to make and manage a claim for someone

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 (https://www.gov.uk/help-someone-with-benefit-claim/manage-someones-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 xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx). Do not send general enquires to this address - instead contact Universal Credit (https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/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 (https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/changes-of-circumstances) to change the email address for each claimant.