Welfare Tax Credits

(asked on 14th July 2015) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will estimate the number of children living in a household that includes at least one person with a disability and which is likely to be affected by his proposal to restrict tax credit entitlement.


Answered by
Damian Hinds Portrait
Damian Hinds
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 20th July 2015

The Government is making changes to tax credits and Universal Credit which will help put welfare spending on a more sustainable path. The Government wants to move from a low wage, high tax, and high welfare society to a higher wage, lower tax, and lower welfare society. That means more emphasis on supporting hardworking families on low incomes by reducing income tax through increases in the personal allowance and increasing wages, than on topping up low wages through tax credits.

Reforms announced at the Summer Budget do not affect a family’s eligibility to the any of the disability elements in tax credits (both child and adult). The uprating of the disability elements is also exempt from the four year working age benefit freeze; these elements will continue to rise in line with inflation.

HMRC publishes information on the number of families benefitting from the disability elements. The most recent available data is for 2013/14 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-and-working-tax-credits-statistics-finalised-annual-awards-2013-to-2014

Details on the number of families benefitting from the receipt of these elements, as well as the number of children in these families, is shown in Table 3.3 – 3.6.

The number of families benefitting from eligibility to the disabled worker element is also broken down geographically in Table 2 of a separate publication here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-tax-credits-finalised-award-statistics-geographical-statistics-2013-to-2014

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