You asked
Please provide data on Universal Credit in the UK for the last 5 years.
We said
Thank you for your request for data about Universal Credit.
The recommended source for this type of information is the Family Resources Survey (FRS), which is the responsibility of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). You can access data from the FRS via the government web site see: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-resources-survey--2.
Alternatively more detailed data from the FRS can be accessed via the UK Data Service web site, see: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access.aspx.
We collect data on Universal Credit on the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF). This has a smaller sample size than the FRS and so is not the recommended source for Universal Credit data. However, should you want to use this source then special extracts and tabulations of the data are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate). Such enquiries should be made to the customer services team of Social Surveys Operations Division; socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk.
Another route would be to access the anonymised LCF datasets at the UK Data Service if you are able to run your own analysis. Details of how to access the data can be found here: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access.aspx
As this information is already available to you via this route, we consider that s.21(1) applies to this request and the information does not have to be supplied under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. S.21(1) is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.