Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to eradicate destitution by 2035.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to tackling poverty, including deep poverty across the UK.
The Child Poverty Taskforce is developing an ambitious child poverty strategy which we will publish in the autumn. The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
Good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach to delivering lasting change, as reflected in the proposals in our plan for Making Work Pay and our Get Britain Working White Paper. We have also commenced reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to do, to make work pay and tackle poverty. We have begun this work by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit and announcing the first sustained above inflation rise in the basic rate of Universal Credit since it was introduced.
As a significant downpayment ahead of strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through the Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1bn a year including Barnett impact, investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap. We also announced the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation and £13.2bn including Barnett impact across the Parliament for the Warm Homes Plan.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help tackle child poverty in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances of every child. It is unacceptable that there are almost 2500 children in relative poverty (before housing costs) in North East Somerset and Hanham. Children in low-income families' local area statistics (CiLIF) are published on Stat-Xplore. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
As a significant downpayment ahead of Strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament. Our data shows that 3,500 children in the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency will be eligible for FSM from September 2026. This data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-expansion-impact-on-poverty-levels. We are also establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year (including Barnett impact), investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap. We also announced the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation and £13.2 billion including Barnett impact across the Parliament for the Warm Homes Plan.
Our commitments at the 2025 Spending Review come on top of the existing action we have taken which includes expanding free breakfast clubs, capping the number of branded school uniform items children are expected to wear, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government’s response to the consultation entitled Child Maintenance: Improving the Collection and Transfer of Payments, published on 23 June 2025, what steps she plans to take to ensure compliance from paying parents in receipt of benefits who are exempt from the 20 per cent non-compliance fee.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The CMS believes that all parents have an obligation to support their children regardless of their financial situation. The CMS is able to deduct £8.40 a week towards ongoing maintenance or arrears from certain prescribed benefits.
When a paying parent is in receipt of benefits, CMS will send a request to set up a Deduction from Benefit (DfB) to collect ongoing maintenance. This means that where benefit levels allow, maintenance will be paid.
The overall cap for Universal Credit (UC) deductions was reduced from the current 25% of the standard allowance to 15% from April 2025. Alongside this, child maintenance deductions moved higher up the priority order.
Asked by: Paul Waugh (Labour (Co-op) - Rochdale)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the five-week wait for Universal Credit on (a) debt and (b) poverty levels.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are reviewing Universal Credit, to make sure it is doing the job we want it to. We are committed to considering how we can support people during the Initial Assessment Period, often referred to as the 5-week wait, before they receive their first payment as part of the review and will provide an update in due course.
Published research on debt whilst on UC can be found here: Impacts of external debt for indebted Universal Credit claimants - GOV.UK; DWP ad hoc research - GOV.UK and the latest Universal Credit deductions statistics are published here Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 10 April 2025 - GOV.UK
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 she is taking to tackle child poverty.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances of every child. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
As a significant downpayment ahead of strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through the Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1bn a year (including Barnett impact), investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap.
These commitments come on top of the existing action we have taken which includes expanding free breakfast clubs, capping the number of branded school uniform items children are expected to wear, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.
Asked by: David Baines (Labour - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help tackle child poverty in St Helens North constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In St Helens North, there were 6,670 children in UC households in November 2024. There are 7,634 pupils (28.3%) known to be eligible for free school meals in St Helens. In 2023/24, there were 7,096 (33.8%) children in in relative low income after housing costs. Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is a priority for this Government. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty, including children in the St Helens North constituency.
The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
As a significant downpayment ahead of Strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year (including Barnett impact), investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap. We also announced the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation and £13.2 billion including Barnett impact across the Parliament for the Warm Homes Plan.
Our commitments at the 2025 Spending Review come on top of the existing action we have taken which includes expanding free breakfast clubs, capping the number of branded school uniform items children are expected to wear, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Budget Statement 2024, the Spring Statement 2025 and the Spending Review 2025, what forecast she has made of levels of child poverty during this Parliament.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department publishes the estimated impact of specific policies where appropriate. The Department, for example, recently made public the impact of the expansion of the Free School meal extension announced as part of the Spending Review 2025. The impact assessment can be found here [Free School Meals expansion - Impact on poverty levels - GOV.UK].
The impact demonstrated that Free School Meals will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year [including Barnett impact]
Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is a priority for this Government. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
As a significant downpayment ahead of Strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year (including Barnett impact), investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap. We also announced the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation and £13.2 billion including Barnett impact across the Parliament for the Warm Homes Plan.
Our commitments at the 2025 Spending Review come on top of the existing action we have taken which includes expanding free breakfast clubs, capping the number of branded school uniform items children are expected to wear, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of her Department's proposed changes to the Universal Credit deductions priority order on the (a) volume and (b) timeliness of child maintenance payments.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Fair Repayment Rate (FRR) was implemented as a permanent change on the 30 April 2025. This measure reduces the overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer's Universal Credit (UC) standard allowance. This will enable approximately 1.2 million UC households retain more of their award, on average £420 a year or £35 per month. The FRR will impact UC assessment periods that start on 30 April 25 or after.
The FRR measure as an isolated change, would have reduced the current number of child maintenance deductions taken from a UC award, resulting in a negative impact on child poverty. Therefore, in addition to the FRR, the child maintenance deduction was moved higher up the regulated deductions priority order on the 30 April, and for a temporary period of one year.
The reason for implementing the child maintenance deduction measure on a temporary basis is to enable the Department to gather further evidence on the impact the changes will have on UC households with a child maintenance deduction. This evidence will determine the future child maintenance deduction policy.
Outturn data on the full impact of the change to the positioning of Child Maintenance is not yet available. However, modelling of the change by the Department estimates that it will increase the number of monthly Child Maintenance deductions collected from approximately 50,000 to approximately 60,000. This estimate was derived using UC household deductions data from May 2024, the latest available when the modelling was done. Actual figures may differ as a result of changes to the composition and characteristics of the UC caseload in the intervening time.
Timeliness of payments are in line with existing processes: the Universal Credit (UC) deduction is transferred to Child Maintenance Service (CMS) CMS on the Saturday following the UC award payment date and immediately paid out the receiving parent. The payment is subject to usual bank processing and is received in the parent’s bank account in 3-5 working days.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce the rate of child poverty in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is a priority for this Government. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
As a significant downpayment ahead of Strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year (including Barnett impact), investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap. We also announced the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation and £13.2 billion including Barnett impact across the Parliament for the Warm Homes Plan.
Our commitments at the 2025 Spending Review come on top of the existing action we have taken which includes expanding free breakfast clubs, capping the number of branded school uniform items children are expected to wear, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the child poverty taskforce on levels of child poverty in Fylde constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances of every child, including those in Fylde constituency. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
As a significant downpayment ahead of strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through the Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1bn a year (including Barnett impact), investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap.
These commitments come on top of the existing action we have taken which includes expanding free breakfast clubs, capping the number of branded school uniform items children are expected to wear, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.