Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the cumulative impact of housing benefit cuts, benefit caps and council tax on the health of benefit claimants, both those in work and unemployed, since 2008, taking into account the impact of debt on mental health and the need for women to receive a healthy diet before they conceive and while they are pregnant if they are to give birth to healthy babies.

Impact assessments published for welfare changes, for example those relating to the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, are available on www.gov.uk.

Published impact assessments not available on www.gov.uk may be available at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.

We already have cumulative distributional analysis published by HMT that is the most comprehensive available covering not only the effects of direct cash transfers between households and government but also the effects of frontline public service provision.

Our welfare reforms since 2010 are intended to incentivise work and make work pay. There is a strong evidence base showing that work is generally good for physical and mental health and wellbeing. We recognise that not everyone can work and therefore we provide financial assistance.

The employment rate is at 74.4 per cent which is the highest since comparable records began. In addition the number and rate of workless households are both at a record low.