Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with local authorities on tackling in-work poverty.

We know that working full-time substantially reduces the risk of being in poverty. Working age adults living in households where no adults are in work were around 6 times more likely to be in relative poverty after housing costs than working age adults in households where all adults work. This is why supporting people into good work will always be the foundation of our approach to delivering lasting change.

Ministers and officials have regular discussions with Local Authorities, including quarterly meetings with both Mayors and Local Government Association representatives to discuss progress with our Get Britain Working initiatives. These proposals, backed by an initial £240 million investment in 25/26, will deliver the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation to help more people to access good, meaningful work, and support them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers.

Alongside this, our plan to Make Work will help more people to stay in work, improve job security and boost living standards including by increasing the National Living Wage by 6.7 per cent to £12.21 an hour, boosting the pay of 3 million workers.

We have also commenced reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to do, to make work pay and tackle poverty. We have begun this work by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit and announcing the first sustained above inflation rise in the basic rate of Universal Credit since it was introduced.