Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of uprating benefits by CPI plus 2 per cent over the next four years, and will she make a statement.

The Secretary of State is bound by law to complete an annual review of benefit and pension rates to determine whether they have retained their value in relation to the general level of prices or - in the case of the full rate of the new State Pension, basic State Pension and Standard Minimum Guarantee (SMG) in Pension Credit - earnings.

Where prices and earnings have increased relative to the value of those benefits or pensions, the Secretary of State must increase non-contributory benefits for additional disability needs and for carers, as well as Additional Pension, at least in line with the increase in prices. In the case of the basic and the full rate of the new State Pension, the triple lock guarantees that rates will be raised by the highest of the rise in prices, the rise in earnings, or 2.5% for the duration of this Parliament.

The Secretary of State must also consider the rates of other benefits including working age benefits, and may decide to increase those at her discretion taking into account considerations such as the prevailing national economic circumstances and Government priorities at that time. She will make her assessment later this year and announce it ahead of the up-rating of benefits in April 2020. From that date she is able to implement a discretionary decision since the four-year freeze set by the Welfare Reform & Work Act 2016 will have lapsed.