Baroness Buscombe

In 2024/25, it is estimated that there will be around 17.9 million recipients of the Christmas Bonus at a cost of £179 million. This information is available in Table 1c of the Outturn and Forecast tables for the Autumn Budget 2024, which can be found here: outturn-and-forecast-tables-autumn-budget-2024.xlsx

In most cases, the bonus is paid automatically with whichever qualifying benefit an individual receives, which ensures administration costs are kept to a minimum.

The Government will work in partnership with organisations at the national and local level to join up, enhance and champion their efforts as part of our new Youth Guarantee. Our first partnerships will be developed with Channel 4, the Royal Shakespeare Company and leading sports organisations including the Premier League.​

These sports, culture and arts organisations play a vital role in our economy, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and contributing to growth. This work has become even more important since the Covid-19 pandemic, which harmed the chances and choices of so many young people.

We have partnered with these organisations on the basis that they already have a track record of building trusted relationships with young people from all walks of life, including those in schools and those from areas of socio-economic disadvantage.  As well as being heavily involved with young people in schools they all have a particular interest in young people who are not earning or learning.

We plan to expand into other sectors and organisations who also play a vital role in youth education, employment and training.

DWP does not hold data on pay by individual organisations.

The Good Work Review, published in February 2023 by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, was co-funded by DCMS and is the first sectoral deep dive of its kind into job quality and working practice in the creative industries.

DCMS is working closely with the sector as it responds to these recommendations. The review set out a number of priorities, including driving improvements in workplace and management practices in the Creative Industries.

Statistics on median annual gross pay in the Creative Industries and subsectors (vs. UK as a whole) in Economic Estimates: Earnings 2023 and Employment October 2022 to September 2023 for the DCMS Sectors and Digital Sector - GOV.UK

The Government has no such plans. Independent, free and anonymous benefit calculators are available that can help individuals to see how their benefits are affected if they start work or increase their hours. Benefit calculators can be found on gov.uk.

The table below shows the number of claimants in February 2024 who are on the different disability benefits, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance, including the Child element (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA).

This information can be found on the published datasets on Stat-Xplore - Log in (dwp.gov.uk)

The latest available population estimates published by the Office of National Statistics on Population estimates - local authority based by single year of age - Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics (nomisweb.co.uk) show that the estimated population of Ceredigion in April 2023 is 73,050.

This means that 12% of the residents of Ceredigion in Wales were claiming disability benefits in February 2024.

The Government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity, ensuring every child has access to high-quality education, which is why we have made the tough decision to end tax breaks for private schools. This will raise revenue for essential public services, including investing in the education system.

Recognising the enormous sacrifices our military families make, the Ministry of Defence provide the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) to eligible Service Personnel. The government will monitor closely the impact of these policy changes on affected military families and the upcoming Spending Review is the right time to consider any changes to this scheme.