Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether payments received by a surrogate mother in the UK are treated as income for the purposes of benefits assessments.

Surrogacy payments in the United Kingdom should only be for reasonable expenses. They are not taken into account as income for Universal Credit purposes. If any of the surrogacy payment is unspent in the period it is paid for, then this can be treated as capital if not spent by the end of the next assessment period. The normal capital rules apply to the build-up of unspent income if capital exceeds £6,000.