Social Security Benefits: Families

(asked on 6th November 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Buscombe on 5 November (HL Deb, col 1581), what evidence informed her statement that the UK “provides more benefits for families than any other advanced nation”; and what measure of “benefits for families” was used.


Answered by
Baroness Buscombe Portrait
Baroness Buscombe
This question was answered on 20th November 2018

The latest data shows that the UK spends 3.8 per cent of GDP on expenditure classified by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as “family benefits”. This is more than any other country in the OECD.

“Family benefits” include cash benefits, such as personal tax credits, Child Benefit; maternity benefits and child Disability Living Allowance; and benefits in kind covering child care and social services. They do not include other benefits that might be available to the claimant, such as Personal Independence Payment or Housing Benefit.

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