Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing in line with inflation each year the maximum amount an individual can hold in savings before becoming ineligible for housing benefit.

No meetings have taken place. Although capital limits are kept under review, they can be increased only when priorities and resources allow. It was never the intention that they should be uprated annually. The cost would be substantial and it is questionable whether increasing the general capital limits, enabling more public money to be paid to people who already have significant resources, would be the best use of the funds available to us.