Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help support people with increases in the cost of living.

The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and is taking action to help. Overall, we are providing total support of over £94bn over 2022-23 and 2023- 24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of bills.

This includes up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments for households on eligible means-tested benefits. The next payment of £300 will be made between 31 October 2023 and 19 November 2023 for most people who are eligible, which follows on from the £301 payment issued in April 2023 to 8.3 million households. A further payment of £299 will be made by spring 2024 for those entitled. In addition, more than eight million pensioner households across the UK will receive an additional £300 Cost of Living Payment during winter 2023-24 paid as a top up to the winter fuel payment and 6.4 million individuals on eligible ‘extra-costs’ disability benefits have also received a further £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment.

For people who require additional support, in England, the Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the significantly rising cost of living. Local Authorities are expected to support households in the most need, and in particular those who may not be eligible for the other support Government recently made available but are nevertheless in need of support. In the case of Westmorland and Furness, the local authority has been allocated £3,045,591 for this period. The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.

From April, we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1%, and in order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap levels also increased by the same amount.

To support those who are in work, from 1 April, the National Living Wage (NLW) increased by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW.