Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 13 December 2023 to Question 5974 on Universal Credit: Children, what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of deductions from Universal Credit payments on trends in the level of (a) relative and (b) absolute child poverty.

Estimating the impact of deductions on trends in poverty is complex as stopping deductions would result in a build-up of arrears of the range of debts a customer has and stop vital obligations such as child maintenance being paid.

The government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to drive up opportunity and drive down poverty across the UK. As announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Budget, a new Fair Repayment Rate has now been introduced from 30 April 2025, reducing the Universal Credit (UC) overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer’s UC standard allowance. This measure will help approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households benefit by an average of £420 a year.