Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of (1) the future annual cost of ending the freeze on working-age and children's benefits, and (2) what the additional annual cost of those benefits would now be had the freeze not been implemented.

These estimates can be derived using the published “Welfare Reform and Work Bill: Assessment of the Benefit Rate Freeze” attached.

Using the figures published in the impact assessment for the benefit freeze, we can estimate the annual cost of ending the freeze on working-age and children’s benefits. Assuming the freeze was ended after 2017/18 (such that savings from 2017/18 onwards are constant at £0.9bn), the annual cost of ending the freeze would be £2.7bn by 2020/21.

Assuming the freeze ends after 2017/18, the additional annual cost to working-age and children’s benefits had the freeze not been implemented is £0.9bn per annum.