Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have assessed the impact on the living standards of different groups of people in receipt of Universal Credit resulting from the difference between the benefit uprating of 1.7 per cent from April 2025 and a higher inflation forecast for 2025–26.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State undertakes an annual review of benefits and pensions. The latest figure that the Secretary of State can use is the Consumer Price Index in the year to September to allow sufficient time for the required legislative and operational changes before new rates can be introduced at the start of the new financial year.
All benefit up-rating since April 1987 has been based on the increase in the relevant price inflation index in the 12 months to the previous September. Given the volumes involved (over 20 million customers), the technical and legislative requirements and the interdependencies across Government, it is not currently possible to undertake the up-rating exercise any later. There are no current plans for the Secretary of State to revisit these decisions.
At present, no estimate has been made of the impact on the living standards of different groups of people in receipt of Universal Credit resulting from the difference between the benefit uprating of 1.7 per cent from April 2025 and the inflation forecast for 2025-26.
The estimated number of individuals in families benefitting from the uprating of benefits in the financial year 2025/26 in each region of the UK and the UK overall can be found here Benefit uprating: estimated number and type of families and individuals in families benefitting from the uprating of benefits in financial year 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government by what date the Department for Work and Pensions will resume the sharing of Healthy Start take-up data with the Department for Health and Social Care.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
DWP are working with DHSC to make data available by the end of 2022.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many households with children are currently receiving Universal Credit as well as legacy benefits; and what proportion of those cannot fully benefit from the recent £1,000 increase in Universal Credit as that increase pushed them over the limit of the total amount of benefit they are allowed to receive.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide a reply would require us to produce new analysis to link together several complex datasets, including Child Benefit data which is administered by HMRC, to identify if a household would have a benefit income above the cap levels due to increases in their UC award alone (independent of increases to Local Housing Allowance and CPI uprating of working age benefits). We would also need to identify if the household would otherwise be exempt from the benefit cap. This includes assessing whether or not a household has earnings over the earnings threshold, currently £604 per assessment period, is in receipt of an exempting benefit e.g. Personal Independence Payments, Carer’s Allowance etc. or is eligible for a grace period due to previous earnings. It is estimated that the time this would take to produce and quality assure the results would be in excess of 4 working days and therefore would incur disproportionate costs.