GOV.UK
Cookies
The Universal Credit site puts small files (known as ʻcookiesʼ) on to your computer or other device to collect information about how you browse the site.
We use cookies to:
- remember the notifications youʼve seen so that we donʼt show them to you again
- remember your progress while youʼre using the online service for security purposes
- measure how you use our service so that we can improve it for you
We donʼt use cookies to identify you personally.
Cookies we use on Universal Credit
Introductory message
You may see a welcome message when you first visit the Universal Credit site. Weʼve stored a cookie so that your computer or other device knows youʼve seen it and knows not to show it again.
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| uc_cookies_policy | Saves a message to let us know that youʼve seen our cookie message | 1 year |
Using the Universal Credit service
When you register or sign in to Universal Credit, weʼll set cookies to remember your progress while youʼre using the online service. These cookies donʼt store your personal data and are deleted once youʼve completed the transaction.
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| sessionId | This allows us to identify you as an individual user as you move from screen to screen through our service | When you close your browser |
|
uctx uctx-legacy |
This works with the sessionId to increase the security of the service | When you close your browser |
Helping you use our service
To help you move between screens and only see the information you need, weʼll set cookies that personalise our service for you. These cookies donʼt store your personal data and are deleted once youʼve completed the transaction.
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| currentTab | For couples, this allows us to remember whose to-do list is being viewed | When you close your browser |
| loadedTimestamp | This allows us to warn you before your session is due to time-out | When you close your browser |
Google Analytics cookies used by our service
We use Google Analytics to collect information on how you use our service so that we can improve it for you.
Google Analytics doesnʼt store any of your personal details. It stores data about how you got to the service, the pages you visit and how long you spend on each page.
We donʼt allow Google to use or share our analytics data.
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | This helps us count how many people visit Universal Credit by tracking if youʼve visited before | 2 years |
| _gat | This manages the rate at which requests are made to Google Analytics from your browser | 10 minutes |
If you donʼt accept our cookie policy
If you donʼt want to accept our cookie policy on your own computer you can:
- use an internet access device in your jobcentre on which cookies have been accepted
- claim Universal Credit over the telephone (only in some circumstances)
Find out more about how to manage or delete cookies.
GOV.UK services
We may link to some GOV.UK services which can set additional cookies and have their own cookies policies.