Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) making the uplift to universal credit and working tax credit permanent and (b) extending that uplift to legacy benefits.

The temporary £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance and Working Tax Credit basic element forms just one part of a wide-ranging package of measures to protect people’s jobs and incomes. The welfare measures announced in March, which the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates are worth £9 billion this year, are specifically aimed at providing significant temporary support to low-income families who have seen their income fall due to the immediate impact of Coronavirus.

Making the £20 per week increase permanent would require a substantial ongoing increase in public expenditure, with 2020-21 spending on working-age benefits set to be the highest since records began as a share of national income.

The Government has focused on measures that can be introduced and operationalised quickly – the most straightforward way to increase benefits for claimants during this period was to temporarily increase the Universal Credit standard allowance and the Working Tax Credit basic element. In addition, Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker's Allowance, and Income Support were increased by 1.7 per cent in April 2020 as part of the annual uprating exercise.