The Minister for Employment (Jo Churchill)
Further to written ministerial statement HCWS405, tabled on 15 April 2024, I can confirm we intend to lay the Universal Credit (Administrative Earnings Threshold) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 later today.
This will raise the administrative earnings threshold level, delivering on a commitment made in the spring Budget last year, to £892 per calendar month for individual customers and £1,437 per calendar month for couples in Great Britain. The new threshold levels would be equivalent to an individual working 18 hours per week at the national living wage or couples working a total of 29 hours per week at the national living wage. This change will mean that the threshold will have doubled since September 2022, when it was first increased from the equivalent of nine hours for a single person.
Combined with previous increases, this means 400,000 more customers will have more intensive support from our work coaches to help them to progress in work and move off welfare. This is why the Government have today laid regulations to amend Regulation 99(6) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 to raise the administrative earnings threshold level to £892 for individual claimants and £1,437 for couples in Great Britain, from 13 May 2024.
This is all part of our welfare reforms to make work pay and is backed up by our £2.5 billion back to work plan, which will help a million people find, stay and succeed in employment.
[HCWS418]