Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of changes in the cost to the public purse of benefits payments as a result of changes in employment levels since May 2010.

Since 2010/11 expenditure on benefits and tax credits paid to people not in work has fallen in real terms from £43.2bn to £42.2bn in 2013/14, and is forecast to fall further, to £40.6bn this year. This is due to a combination of factors including welfare reform, changes to benefits and significant employment growth. The number of people in work has risen by 1.7 million since 2010, and the number of people claiming the main out of work benefits has fallen by over 700,000.