Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government why, from the next release of the benefit cap statistics, information on the youngest child in capped households will be suspended; and whether they propose to resume publication of those data in later releases.

The Department advised users on GOV.UK on 7 November 2023, that information on the age of youngest child for capped Housing Benefit households will be suspended from the next release of Benefit Cap statistics (due to be published on 12 December 2023). This is due to an issue with the quality of the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) statistical Child Benefit data, which is currently being investigated. We will reinstate the breakdown in the statistical series as soon as possible, in line with the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) Code of Practice for Statistics.

In May 2023, 91% of capped households were on Universal Credit (UC) and are not affected by this issue. The statistics for the age of youngest child in UC capped households will be published as normal on 12 December 2023.