Social Security Benefits
(asked on 7th June 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 May 2021 to Question 3996 on Social Security Benefits, whether her Department has undertaken a cost/benefit analysis of the benefit cap (a) in general and (b) which has included (i) police costs in responding to domestic abuse reports, (ii) local authority costs for temporary housing, (iii) the administration costs of Discretionary Housing Payments and (iv) additional costs to other public services; and whether there are any other policies and programmes which are delivered by her Department where the associated annual costs to the public purse are unknown.
(a) DWP has published four impact assessments of the benefit cap, each one including a cost/benefit analysis. The first two relate to the introduction of the benefit cap. The second two relate to the introduction of a lower, tiered cap. They can all be found here:
https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/impact-assessments/IA12-003.pdf
https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006.pdf
(b) These cost benefit analyses do not include the specific costs listed in (i) to (iv). The funding of all DWP policies is set out at the time they are introduced and, where relevant, updated at subsequent fiscal events. Documentation on all past fiscal events is set out at Gov.uk, and by the Office for Budget Responsibility where relevant. The most recent documentation can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/965777/Budget_2021_policy_costings_.pdf and https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2021/ respectively.