Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential effect of ending the £20 uplift to universal credit on universal credit claimants.

No assessment has been made.

The £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit was announced by the Chancellor as a temporary measure in March 2020 to support those facing the most financial disruption as a result of the public health emergency. A further 6 month extension announced to the uplift was announced in March at this year’s Spring Budget, and more than £9bn will have been spent on it by the time it ends, well beyond the end of the roadmap.

As the Government has done throughout this pandemic, it will continue to assess how best to support individuals and businesses as the situation develops.

We are committed to supporting families most in need, spending billions more on welfare and planning a long-term route out of poverty by helping people increase their hours in employment or find new work through our Plan for Jobs.