Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of removing the two-child benefit cap on incentives to work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Strategy will set out the decisive action this Government is taking to tackle child poverty and make sure children are given the best start in life.
The commitments we’ve made at the 2025 spending review and beyond are just the latest step of our Plan for Change to put extra pounds in people’s pockets – a downpayment on our Child Poverty Strategy, building on our expansion of free breakfast clubs, our national minimum wage boost and our reduction in the cap on Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with (a) the Prime Minister, (b) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (c) other Cabinet colleagues on lifting the two-child benefit cap.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Strategy will set out the decisive action this Government is taking to tackle child poverty and make sure children are given the best start in life.
The commitments we’ve made at the 2025 spending review and beyond are just the latest step of our Plan for Change to put extra pounds in people’s pockets – a downpayment on our Child Poverty Strategy, building on our expansion of free breakfast clubs, our national minimum wage boost and our reduction in the cap on Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost of changing the two-child benefit cap to a) three, b) four and c) five children.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Strategy will set out the decisive action this Government is taking to tackle child poverty and make sure children are given the best start in life.
The commitments we’ve made at the 2025 spending review and beyond are just the latest step of our Plan for Change to put extra pounds in people’s pockets – a downpayment on our Child Poverty Strategy, building on our expansion of free breakfast clubs, our national minimum wage boost and our reduction in the cap on Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost of lifting the two-child benefit cap.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Strategy will set out the decisive action this Government is taking to tackle child poverty and make sure children are given the best start in life.
The commitments we’ve made at the 2025 spending review and beyond are just the latest step of our Plan for Change to put extra pounds in people’s pockets – a downpayment on our Child Poverty Strategy, building on our expansion of free breakfast clubs, our national minimum wage boost and our reduction in the cap on Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of (a) the causes of the reduction in foodbank use in this calendar year and (b) how this trend can be built upon.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to tackling poverty and ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels. We have already introduced the Fair Repayment Rate, reducing the Universal Credit overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer’s standard allowance, giving 1.2m households an average of £420 per year. In addition, we have also uprated benefit rates for 2025/26 in line with inflation, with 5.7 million Universal Credit households forecast to gain by an average of £150 annually.
The Government has also taken further action to support low-income households including through the increase in the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025, boosting the pay of 3 million workers.
Ahead of Child Poverty Strategy publication in the autumn, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament and a new £1 billion package to reform crisis support, including funding to ensure the poorest children do not go hungry outside of term time. We have also announced £600 million to extend the Holiday Activity and Food Programme.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the proportion of paying parents who have (a) avoided and (b) reduced child maintenance payments through (i) advance benefit payments and (ii) other similar means.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) recognises the importance of ensuring that child maintenance payments are made fairly and consistently, and that children receive the financial support to which they are entitled.
In the Autumn Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced that from 30 April 2025, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would reduce the Universal Credit (UC) overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of the standard allowance, introducing the Fair Repayment Rate (FRR). Without changes, this would reduce the number of child maintenance (CM) deductions. To prevent this, DWP implemented a temporary regulatory and policy change for one year from 30 April 2025 meaning CM deductions moved to first place in UC’s deductions priority order and deductions can exceed the 15% cap ensuring CM payments continue. Evidence gathered during the year will inform whether to make the change permanent or adopt an alternative approach.
In relation to other similar means: The CMS monitors claims to ensure they are accurate and works closely with HMRC to verify income data and identify discrepancies. Where a receiving parent believes their assessment does not reflect the paying parent’s true financial position, CMS offers a variation process to challenge the assessment.
The CMS continues to refine its systems to detect and prevent avoidance, including through legislative reforms and improved data sharing.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support families with food poverty in winter 2025-26.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The UK Government is committed to tackling poverty and ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels.
Universal Credit is claimed by more than 8.2 million people across the UK and we are committed to reviewing it to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty. We have already introduced the Fair Repayment Rate, reducing the Universal Credit overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer’s standard allowance. In addition, we will increase the Universal Credit Standard Allowance from April 2026, estimated to be worth £725 annually by 2029/30 in cash terms. In Northern Ireland, all DWP policy is wholly transferred, and decisions about policy and delivery are the responsibility of the Assembly.
The UK Government has also taken further action to support low-income households including through the increase in the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025, boosting the pay of 3 million workers. It has also announced further measures to support families in a number of other areas where policy in Northern Ireland is transferred including, for example, our expansion of Free School Meals and Breakfast Clubs in England and additional investment in the Holiday Activities and Food Programme in England.
To further support struggling families, we provided £742 million to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) in England until 31 March 2026, enabling local authorities to continue to provide vulnerable households with immediate crisis support towards the cost of essentials, such as energy, water and food. The Devolved Governments receive consequential funding through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion.
Good work can significantly reduce the chances of families falling into poverty. Our Get Britain Working White Paper, backed by an initial £240 million investment in 2025/26, will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health and skills support to meet the needs of local communities. In Northern Ireland, these are transferred matters. Ministers and officials continue to work closely with their counterparts in the Northern Ireland Executive, with a view to maintaining parity on social security matters and sharing best practice in the development of employment support.
The UK Government will publish a UK-wide Child Poverty Strategy this Autumn that will look at all available levers to give every child the best start in life, building on work already across all four nations. The Four Nations Ministerial Group on Child Poverty gave Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland an opportunity to contribute to the development of the strategy and ensure that it complements their own initiatives.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the impact of benefit sanctions on (1) the mental health of claimants, (2) levels of household debt, and (3) food bank use.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We engage on an individual level with all of our claimants and are committed to tailoring support to their individual needs. This includes agreeing realistic and structured steps to encourage claimants into, or closer to, work, where appropriate. These conditionality requirements are regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain appropriate for the claimant. This would include tailoring to reflect any mental health issues the claimant raised.
When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.
The Fair Repayment Rate (FRR) was implemented on 30 April 2025; this meant the overall deductions cap was reduced from 25% to 15% of a customer’s Universal Credit Standard Allowance. Approximately 1.2 million Universal Credit households with deductions will retain more of their award, on average, £420 a year or £35 per month.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference disabled people migrating to Universal Credit from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), for what reason income that was disregarded for the purposes of ESA is considered to be income for the purposes of Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit was not designed to replicate previous legacy benefits. Therefore, customers migrating to Universal Credit may be subject to different rules, including different treatment of income and how it is disregarded in assessing their benefit entitlement.
Those moving from Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA(IR)) through the managed migration process will be assessed for Transitional Protection. Where benefit entitlement on claiming Universal Credit is lower than previous entitlement to ESA(IR), a Transitional Protection element will be applied. This element is determined prior to the application of any deductions. This ensures customers do not experience a reduction in their overall entitlement at the point of migration. However, the calculation does not replicate all legacy benefit rules, so previous disregards such as the permitted earnings disregard in ESA(IR), will not be applied on claiming Universal Credit.
Instead, customers who have limited capability for work qualify for a work allowance – the amount they can earn before the UC award starts to be reduced. The current monthly work allowances are:
Beyond the work allowance, we apply a single taper rate of 55% to net earnings. This means that for every £1 earned, customers keep 45p, helping them see a clear financial benefit from working.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Child Poverty Strategy will end the two-child limit on Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
The Child Poverty Taskforce will publish a Child Poverty Strategy in the autumn that will deliver measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The Strategy will look at all available levers, including social security changes, across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years.
The commitments we have made at the 2025 Spending Review and since are a downpayment on our Child Poverty Strategy, which will build on the expansion of free breakfast clubs, extension of free school meals to all households claiming Universal Credit, national minimum wage boost and the cap on Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate.