Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the freeze in working-age social security benefits on levels of poverty.

The Benefit Freeze was designed to put welfare on a sustainable footing, incentivising work and making welfare fairer.

The Government conducted a number of assessments of the impact of the benefit freeze as set out in the analysis of the measures in the Welfare Reform and Work Act, published at the time of the Summer Budget 2015.

https://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006C.pdf

30% of households were then estimated to be affected by this policy, and no one faced a cash loss as a result of the freeze.

The benefit freeze will come to an end in April 2020.