Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the child poverty strategy.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

This Government is determined to bring down child poverty. The Child Poverty Taskforce was established by the Prime Minister to develop an ambitious child poverty strategy to achieve this. The strategy will be published in the autumn.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 22 July (HL9231), when their review on Universal Credit will be published.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government has committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty.

The Minister for Social Security and Disability is leading this work and is engaging with a wide range of organisations and people, including those with first-hand experience of claiming Universal Credit, those who support them and those with expertise in the system and how it works. We are hosting workshops, roundtables and focus groups and undertaking research, including a survey of 10,000 customers.

We will continue to work closely with stakeholders throughout this process and will provide an update at an appropriate time.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the under-registration of eligible children for free school meals following the extension of entitlement to all children in households receiving Universal Credit; and whether they plan to introduce free school meal auto-enrolment to ensure all eligible children receive the support to which they are entitled.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026, lifting 100,000 children across England out of poverty and putting £500 back in families’ pockets.

We want to ensure that all families who need it are able to claim the support they are eligible for. Expanding FSM to all children in households claiming Universal Credit will make it easier for parents to know whether they are entitled to receive free meals.

To support take-up of free meals, we are also rolling out improvements to the checking system that we make available to all local authorities to help verify eligibility for free meals. This will make the process of claiming free meals more seamless for families by allowing them to directly check whether they can receive this entitlement.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the effectiveness of benefit sanctions in supporting claimants into sustained employment.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department for Work and Pensions published a draft report on the Impact of Benefit Sanctions on Employment Outcomes, on the 6th April 2023.

The draft report is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-impact-of-benefit-sanctions-on-employment-outcomes-draft-report

And can also be found in the attached document.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the impact of benefit sanctions on (1) the mental health of claimants, (2) levels of household debt, and (3) food bank use.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We engage on an individual level with all of our claimants and are committed to tailoring support to their individual needs. This includes agreeing realistic and structured steps to encourage claimants into, or closer to, work, where appropriate. These conditionality requirements are regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain appropriate for the claimant. This would include tailoring to reflect any mental health issues the claimant raised.

When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.

The Fair Repayment Rate (FRR) was implemented on 30 April 2025; this meant the overall deductions cap was reduced from 25% to 15% of a customer’s Universal Credit Standard Allowance. Approximately 1.2 million Universal Credit households with deductions will retain more of their award, on average, £420 a year or £35 per month.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 12 November (HL11411), why they continue to use benefit sanctions in the light of the finding of the draft report Impact of Benefit Sanctions on Employment Outcomes, published on 6 April 2024, that "a sanction leads the average claimant to exit less quickly into pay as you earn earnings and to earn less upon exiting."

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Benefit sanctions form part of a wider approach to social security, acting as both a consequence for those who do not meet their work-related requirements without good reason, and as a deterrent to encourage claimants to continue to comply with their obligations.

The analysis in The Impact of Benefit Sanctions on Employment Outcomes: draft report is limited to the impact on those who were sanctioned due to non-compliance with their Universal Credit claimant commitment and excludes any claimants who were not sanctioned. It does not address the deterrent impact of sanctions and therefore does not represent a comprehensive picture of the effectiveness of sanctions within the wider social security system.

Our goal is to ensure that all those who can work should be supported to do so. Our work coaches stand ready to help people to get into work or to move closer to the labour market, depending on their circumstances. And we are investing record amounts in supporting customers to overcome barriers to work whether related to health, skills, childcare or other things that stand in their way.