Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will ensure that inflation-linked benefits and tax credits for 2026–27 will be uprated in line with the consumer prices index rate of inflation for September.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Social Security Administration Act 1992 requires the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to review benefit and State Pension rates each year to see if they have retained their value in relation to the general level of prices or earnings. Where the relevant benefit or State Pension rates have not retained their value, legislation provides that the Secretary of State is required to, or in some instances may, up-rate their value. Following this review, benefit and State Pension rates are increased in line with statutory minimum amounts and others are increased subject to Secretary of State’s discretion.
By convention, these discretionary benefits are typically increased annually in line with the increase in prices as measured by the increase in CPI in the year to September. The outcome of Secretary of State’s statutory up-rating review will be announced in the Autumn. The Uprating Order, which seeks Parliamentary approval of her decisions, is usually laid upon return from recess in January and the new rates will enter into force from 6 April 2026.
Tax Credits ended 5 April 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following their Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, what steps they will take to upscale resources to accommodate the proposed increase in face-to-face Personal Independence Payment assessments.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Green Paper sets out measures to make improvements to the PIP assessment, including looking again at our safeguarding processes, moving back to having more face-to-face assessments while continuing to meet the needs of people who may require different assessment methods, recording more assessments to increase trust in the process, and exploring ways to use evidence from eligibility for other services to reduce the need for some people with very severe health conditions to undergo a full PIP functional assessment. The Department will consider its commitment to ensure resources are in place to carry out more face to face PIP assessments alongside other plans for reform laid out within Pathways to Work.
We also plan to review the PIP benefit assessment, working closely with stakeholders and those with lived experience, with an ambition of shaping a system of active support that helps people manage and adapt to their condition in ways that expand their functioning and improve their independence.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will provide the Office for Budget Responsibility with the necessary information to enable an assessment of the impact on poverty of the measures announced in the Spring Statement on 26 March that includes those aimed at increasing employment.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government’s impact assessment regarding Health and Disability reform is available at: Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts.
This assessment does not include the impact of the £1 billion a year, by 2029/30, funding for measures to support those with disabilities and long-term health conditions into employment, which we expect to mitigate the poverty impact among people it supports into work.
We are engaging with the OBR to enable them to make a full assessment of the policies including employment impacts ahead of the next fiscal event.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the rate of statutory stick pay on (1) employee retention, (2) economic activity, and (3) growth.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has not made an assessment of the impact of the rate of Statutory Sick Pay on employee retention, economic activity and growth.
The Department has undertaken a Regulatory Impact Assessment and an Equality Impact Assessment of the Statutory Sick Pay changes to remove the Lower Earnings Limit and remove the 3-day waiting period. Our RIA demonstrates that businesses may stand to benefit from the changes through increased employee productivity, lower staff turnover and reduced recruitment costs. Both impact assessments can be found here:
https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2024-0716/Statutory_Sick_Pay_EA.pdf
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of child poverty.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest statistics show that in 2022/23 there were 4.3 million children (30%) in relative low income after housing costs.
Statistics on the number of children living in absolute and relative poverty in the UK are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication at Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab). The latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. The latest statistics published on 21 March 2024 are for the financial period 2022/23.
Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government, and the Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025.
Our publication on 23 October ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’ sets out how we will develop the Strategy, harnessing all available levers to deliver a reduction in child poverty this Parliament.
The Strategy will look at policies across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
The Strategy is building on a wealth of existing evidence and expertise from all relevant Departments, as is reflected in the broad membership of the Ministerial Taskforce. Ministers are also committed to leading discussions across all UK nations and regions.
The Taskforce will listen to experts and campaigners, engaging with charities, campaigners and leading organisations across the UK to shape and inform these plans, including hearing directly from families across the UK to gather insight.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what further steps they will take to mitigate the impact of child poverty.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government, and the Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025.
Our publication on 23 October ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’ sets out how we will develop the Strategy, harnessing all available levers to deliver a reduction in child poverty this Parliament.
The Strategy will look at policies across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
The Taskforce will hear directly from experts on each of the Strategy’s themes. In October, they heard from partners in industry, regulation and the charity sector about options to reduce essential costs for low-income families. In November, employers, trade unions and think tanks will be invited to discuss options to increase incomes and financial resilience in low-income households.
The vital work of the Taskforce comes alongside our commitments to triple investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introduce a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increase the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers.
£1 billion, including Barnett impact, will be invested to extend the Household Support Fund in England by a full year until 31 March 2026, on top of the six months already announced, and to maintain Discretionary Housing Payments in England and Wales. This will help struggling households facing the greatest financial hardship.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to get rid of the two-child limit for eligibility for certain benefits.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
While we cannot commit to changing the two child policy, tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances of every child.
The Child Poverty Taskforce will explore how we can harness all available levers to reduce child poverty, including by listening to stakeholders on potential changes, before publishing a strategy in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of numbers of people in receipt of Universal Credit; and what are the comparative figures for the 2020–21 financial year.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes Universal Credit statistics on Stat-Xplore which show there were 7.1 million people on Universal Credit in September 2024 and 5.6 million people on Universal Credit in September 2020.
The Department also publishes the benefit expenditure and caseload tables which reported an average caseload of 4.0 million people on Universal Credit in 2020-21.
There are a number of reasons for the increase in the caseload for Universal Credit. There is a maturing effect, as people on legacy benefits leave the system as their legacy claim ends, they appear as a new claim to Universal Credit. In addition, the Move to UC programme is driving up the caseload numbers as people are moved off legacy benefits onto Universal Credit as part of our migration programme.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to removing differences in Universal Credit allowance entitlements for recipients under the age of 25 in their Universal Credit review.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The lower rate of Universal Credit standard allowance for customers under 25 reflects the fact they are more likely to live in someone else’s household than customers 25 and over and are therefore likely to have lower living costs. They also typically earn less as they are earlier in their careers, with the lower rate maintaining the incentive to work.
The Government is committed to reviewing Universal Credit. Details of the review will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to remove the reduced rate in Universal Credit for under 25s.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to remove the reduced rate of Universal Credit for under 25s.
The reduced rate for under 25s reflects the lower wages that younger workers typically receive. This is intended to maintain the incentive for younger people to find work. Customers under 25 are also more likely to live in someone else’s household and therefore typically have lower living costs.
Additional amounts are added to a customer’s Universal Credit award to provide for individual needs such as housing, children, disability, and childcare costs.
Further, targeted help is available through the Household Support Fund, which has recently been extended to 31 March 2025.