Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what they estimate the total cost for all types of benefits available to working age adults and children will be for each 0.1 per cent increment increase in April 2025.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of benefits and State Pensions, based on a review of trends in prices and earnings growth in the preceding year. The Secretary of State announced her decisions to Parliament on 30 October.

The basic and new state pensions, and the standard minimum guarantee in pension credit, will be increased by 4.1%, in line with the increase in average weekly earnings in the year to May-July 2024. Other state pension and benefit rates covered by the statutory review will be increased by 1.7%, in line with the increase in the consumer prices index in the year to September 2024. The full list of proposed State Pension and benefit rates for 2025/26 will be published in November.

This increases expenditure on state pensions and benefits by £6.9 billion in 2025/26 compared with not uprating in 25/26, of which, £4.7 billion will be from state pensions and pensioner benefits, £0.9 billion from disability and carers benefits, and £1.2 billion from working-age benefits.

Statistics on the number and type of families and individuals in families benefitting from the uprating of benefits, were also made available on 30 October. Further detail can be found here Benefit uprating: estimated number and type of families and individuals in families benefitting from the uprating of benefits in financial year 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

No estimate has been made of what the total cost for all types of benefits available to working age adults and children would be for each 0.1 per cent increment increase in April 2025.