Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to encourage parents, children and teachers to discuss the child-friendly version of the child poverty strategy published on 13 March.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The child‑friendly version of the government’s Child Poverty Strategy is designed to help teachers and parents talk to children about the challenges facing children and families in poverty. It provides a clear, reassuring, and age‑appropriate overview of what poverty means, why some families face difficulties, and the actions the government is taking in response.
In developing the strategy, the government undertook structured engagement with children and families experiencing poverty, placing their views at the centre of the work. A Children’s Rights Impact Assessment was also published, outlining the expected positive effects on children’s rights. The child-friendly version of the Strategy (attached) and the Children’s Rights Impact Assessment can be found on the Strategy’s gov.uk webpages: Our Children, Our Future: How the government is helping children and families (Child Friendly) and Child Poverty Strategy: Child Rights - GOV.UK.
UNICEF has shared the strategy with its network of 1,600 Rights Respecting primary schools, and the Department for Education has highlighted it in its sector communications. Further promotion has been supported through social media activity and a stakeholder toolkit to help raise awareness of the child‑friendly strategy.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish agendas, workplans or minutes from meetings of the Timms Review steering group.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I recognise the high levels of interest in the Timms Review and the importance of transparency in its work. The Review is being co-produced and its Steering Group has committed to providing regular updates from the co-chairs on its work as it progresses.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what their assessment is of the number of additional families and children who will be affected by the benefit cap as a result of its thresholds not being uprated from April 2026; and what its thresholds would be from April 2026 had they been uprated in line with the universal credit standard allowance since (1) 2016 when the current thresholds were set, and (2) 2023 when they were last uprated.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made of the number of additional families and children who will be affected by the benefit cap as a result of its thresholds not being uprated from April 2026.
The requested figures for thresholds uprated in line with the Universal Credit standard allowance are shown below. Note these are annual figures for 2026/27.
| Actual | Uprated since 2016 (1) | Uprated since 2023 (2) |
National (couple or lone parents) | £22,020 | £26,732 | £25,372 |
National (single) | £14,753 | £17,910 | £16,998 |
Greater London (couple or lone parents) | £25,323 | £30,742 | £29,178 |
Greater London (single) | £16,987 | £20,598 | £19,573 |
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people were affected by the under-occupancy charge in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Department for Work and Pensions administrative data on the number of people affected by the under-occupancy charge, formally known as the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS), in Housing Benefit and Universal Credit, is shown in the table below. The figures represent the position as of August for each year from 2020 to 2025.
This information is publicly available through the DWP’s Stat-Xplore service at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk.
| Aug-20 | Aug-21 | Aug-22 | Aug-23 | Aug-24 | Aug-25 |
RSRS HB Caseload | 260,395 | 229,360 | 201,132 | 176,891 | 150,165 | 40,136 |
RSRS UCHE Caseload | 230,495 | 265,743 | 283,078 | 303,872 | 333,692 | 427,268 |
RSRS HB and UCHE Caseload | 490,890 | 495,103 | 484,210 | 480,763 | 483,857 | 467,404 |
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to introduce new earned income disregards for Housing Benefit claimants in supported housing.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department will be introducing new earned income disregards for Housing Benefit claimants in Supported Housing and Temporary Accommodation from Autumn 2026. This will help smooth the transition between the two benefit systems and remove the financial cliff edge for individuals in supported housing and temporary accommodation.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the new Crisis and Resilience Fund will count as public funds under the 'no recourse to public funds' rule.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Crisis and Resilience Fund will fall within the definition of public funds. We plan to publish scheme guidance in January 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the new Crisis and Resilience Fund guidance will make furniture and appliance provision an integral part of the support offered by local authorities to those lacking essential furniture.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
My Department has engaged with stakeholders on the design of the Crisis and Resilience Fund through a structured co-design process involving a representative group of local authorities, third-party organisations and academics. We are considering all feedback received through this process, and we plan to publish guidance in January 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of furniture provision, through the Crisis and Resilience Fund, on the likelihood of low-income households entering unmanageable debt.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
My Department has engaged with stakeholders on the design of the Crisis and Resilience Fund through a structured co-design process including furniture provision. We are considering all feedback received through this process, and we plan to publish guidance in January 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken since the Impact Assessment on Converting Support for Mortgage Interest from a benefit into a loan, published in June 2017, identified limited data on disabled claimants using the Support for Mortgage Interest loan scheme; and what measures they have taken to address the impact assessment's conclusion that the scheme was likely to have a disproportionate impact on disabled claimants.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) transitioned from a benefit to a loan in April 2018. Support was provided at the same level as before, ensuring the same degree of protection against repossession.
SMI loans are not repayable until the property is sold and then, only to the extent that there is any available equity.
Since SMI converted to a loan, the Department has regularly reviewed the impact of the policy on its recipients, including on people with disabilities. In March 2021, loan ‘porting’ was introduced to allow SMI recipients to transfer their loan to a new property rather than repay. The primary purpose of this change was to enable disabled recipients to move home due to changes in their disability requirements. Further changes were introduced in April 2023 which extended eligibility to in-work Universal Credit recipients and support was provided after three months instead of nine.
Two separate research projects related to SMI have been conducted and published, in March 2022 and May 2025. Both are publicly available, and a copy will be deposited of both publications in the House of Lords library.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether Universal Credit should be increased for those aged under 25 who are living independently, in line with payments to those aged over 25.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to change the under 25 standard allowance rate.
This government is committed to rebuild opportunities for young people, so that every young person can fulfil their potential, and we are taking significant steps to support people to do so including through our Get Britain Working reforms. The under 25 standard allowance rate maintains the incentive for young people to find, and progress in work and the Department for Work and Pensions provides a range of support to help people into employment.
For those who live independently or have additional living costs, Universal Credit includes separate elements to support all eligible customers with these, including elements for housing, children, childcare costs, disabled people, and carers.
We continue to work in close partnership with other government departments to ensure that care leavers can access the right skills, opportunities and wider support, to move towards sustained employment and career progression. The Department provides a range of targeted additional support for care leavers including access to the higher one-bedroom Local Housing Allowance rate up to the age of 25, as well as tailored support through Jobcentre Plus. We review this regularly.