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Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Children
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of households impacted by the two child limit where one adult is in work in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales, (d) Northern Ireland and (e) each parliamentary constituency.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The requested information is provided in the attached spreadsheet.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the total revenue accrued by the Exchequer since the introduction of the benefit cap; and how many and what proportion of households are impacted in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) each parliamentary constituency in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Since the introduction of the benefit cap in April 2013 to November 2023 (the latest data available) an estimated £2.2 billion has been accrued in Housing Benefit (HB) and Universal Credit (UC) expenditure in Great Britain due to the benefit cap.

Official statistics on the number and proportion of working-age households in receipt of UC and HB who are capped up to November 2023 are available on Stat-Xplore for the requested geographies. Official Statistics on the total number of households in Great Britain on HB or UC for the same geographies are also available on Stat-Xplore up to November 2023. You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Benefit cap statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Department for Communities.

Notes:

Source: Benefit Cap Official Statistics up to Nov-23 published in Mar-24

  • Total savings are rounded to the nearest £100m
  • UC data is only available from October 2016 and for UC Full Service cases only
  • Figures do not include households capped in UC Live Service and so this figure will represent a small undercount of the total savings

Written Question
Household Support Fund
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost to the public purse was of the Household Support Fund since 2021; and what the total distribution of the fund per constituency over the same period.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

A total of £3bn including Barnett impact has been announced since October 2021 to enable the Household Support Fund to run in England. This includes over £2.5 bn allocated to Local Authorities in England. It is for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.

Allocations are made at an upper tier Local Authority, level based on population size and levels of deprivation. Allocations by Local Authority for schemes running between October 2021 to March 2024 can be found at the following links:

Management information for 6th October 2021 to 31st March 2022: Household Support Fund management information: 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Management information for 1st April 2022 to 30th September 2022: Household Support Fund 2 management information for 1 April to 30 September 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Management information for 1st October 2022 to 31st March 2023: Household Support Fund 3 management information for 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Allocations for the period 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund Grant Determination 2023 No 31/6496 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Universal Credit: Uprating
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing universal credit by 50% in financial year 2024-25.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

There are no plans to make such an assessment.


Written Question
Poverty: Children
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children living in (a) absolute and (b) relative poverty in each year since 2007 in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) the UK.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics on the number of Children living in absolute and relative poverty per country in the UK are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication in “table 4.22ts” and “table 4.17ts” (respectively) ofchildren-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2022-23-tables at Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest statistics published on 21 March 2024 are for the financial period 2022/23.

The latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/


Written Question
Poverty: Children
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) Unicef and (b) the United Nations Rapporteur on extreme poverty on initiatives to tackle child poverty.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP officials engage with a wide range of stakeholders including UNICEF.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Children
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the total revenue accrued by the Exchequer since the introduction of the two child limit; and how many and what proportion of households are impacted in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) each parliamentary constituency in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The latest statistics, which include breakdowns by Region and Local Authority are published here: Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit claimants: statistics related to the policy to provide support for amaximum of 2 children, April 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The information requested on savings is not available.

Statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children, by Parliamentary Constituencies isn’t currently available.


Written Question
Poverty: Children
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of children living in (a) absolute and (b) relative poverty per constituency in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics on the number of Children living in absolute and relative poverty per constituency are published annually in the “Children in low income families: local area statistics” publication and can be found in tabs “6_Absolute_ParlC” and “5_Relative_ParlC” at Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest statistics published on 21 March 2024 are for the financial period 2022/23.

The latest available data can also be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/


Written Question
Social Security Benefits: Children
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the two child limit on the numbers of children living in (a) absolute and (b) relative poverty between 2018 and 2035.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

It is not possible to produce a robust assessment.


Written Question
Social Security Benefits
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his department has made of the potential implications for household budgets of his policies on the (a) cap on benefits for out of work households and (b) two child limit for child support.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

It is not possible to produce a robust assessment.