Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the impact of the benefit cap on levels of child poverty.

It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the impact of the benefit cap policy on levels of child poverty.

The benefit cap provides a strong work incentive, which reflects our long-term focus of continuing to support parents into, and to progress in, work. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has recently been expanded by £500 million, will help people across the UK to find work and to boost their wages and prospects.

Official child poverty statistics, covering the period 2020/21 will be published in March 2022, as part of the Department’s (a) ‘Children In Low Income Families’ and (b) ‘Households Below Average Income’ publications, subject to the usual checks on data quality.