Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has any plans to make (a) Universal Credit, (b) Employment and Support Allowance, and (c) Housing Benefit taxable state benefits.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Means-tested benefits that are designed to meet specific costs, such as Universal Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance and Pension Credit, are not taxable, and the government has no current plans to alter this.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance she has issued to (a) Health and Social Care Trusts and (b) fostering service providers on the treatment of foster care allowances in the assessment of Universal Credit; and what steps she is taking to ensure that potential foster carers are given full information to make an informed decision on becoming a carer.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Fostering is a devolved issue. Guidance to Health and Social Care Trusts is a matter for the devolved Northern Irish government.
The department funds Fosterline, which provides guidance on Universal Credit to fostering services and to prospective and current foster carers in England.
In England, the government sets the National Minimum Allowance to cover carers’ day‑to‑day caring costs. Fostering income is disregarded when determining eligibility for Universal Credit.
During discussions with a Department for Work & Pensions work coach, foster carer support can be tailored by recording that they are an approved foster carer and looking after children.
English fostering standards make clear that carers should receive clear information about the financial support they will receive before they start looking after a child. The department has also launched a call for evidence which included questions on financial transparency, to improve the understanding and consistency of financial support that is available to foster carers.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Labour (Co-op) - Edmonton and Winchmore Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to review the treatment of assumed and notional income in Universal Credit calculations for self‑employed claimants.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department routinely keeps its policies under review and we are always interested in views from customers and stakeholders.
The current review of Universal Credit is looking closely at how the benefit supports self-employed people.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of potential data processing measures to enable automatic registration for free school meals.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We want to make sure that every family that needs support can access it.
We are introducing a new eligibility threshold for free school meals so that all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals from September 2026. This will make it easier for parents to know whether their children are entitled to receive free meals. This new entitlement will mean over 500,000 of the most disadvantaged children will begin to access free meals, pulling 100,000 children out of poverty and putting £500 back in families’ pockets.
We are also rolling out improvements to the Eligibility Checking System, the digital portal currently used by local authorities to verify if a child meets the eligibility criteria for free lunches. Giving parents and schools access will accelerate eligibility checks, making it easier to check if children are eligible for free meals.
Asked by: Luke Murphy (Labour - Basingstoke)
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 trends in the availability of flexible, remote or hybrid working on mothers with childcare responsibilities, including in Basingstoke; whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) school hours, (b) school holidays and (c) the availability of informal childcare on women’s participation in the labour market; and whether his Department plans to take steps to help encourage employers to offer flexible roles that enable parents to (i) maintain employment, (ii) develop skills and (iii) reduce reliance on out-of-work benefits.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We’re delivering a modern deal for working parents through the Employment Rights Act. Improving access to flexible working to allow parents to fit work around their family life, and employers will be expected to agree flexible working requests unless there is a clear and reasonable reason why they can’t.
Access to childcare support is essential in enabling parents to move into or progress in employment. Eligible Universal Credit (UC) customers can be reimbursed up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month up to the maximum amounts (caps). The UC childcare offer can be used alongside the Department for Education’s early years and childcare entitlements in England to help cover costs of childcare during school holidays and before or after the school day, and there are similar offers in the Devolved Nations.
To deliver our long-term ambition, the Department for Education is leading a cross-government review of early education and childcare support to design and deliver a simpler system that maximises benefits for child development and parents’ ability to work or work more hours.
We are also investing up to £289m in Wraparound Childcare places before and after school, and during the school holidays, rolling out Free Universal Breakfast Clubs in every primary school, and spending over £200m each year on free Holiday Childcare places for our most disadvantaged children. These policies will ensure that parents have access to affordable, quality childcare so they can work, study, and train.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the estimated total Universal Credit expenditure is for 16 to 21 year olds who are receiving the UC health element, including the standard allowance and other elements, and for all ages receiving the health element, for each financial year since 2019/20.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
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, how many Universal Credit overpayments arising from official error were identified in each month since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department publishes estimates of the numbers of official error overpayments, available here: Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2024 to 2025 estimates
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made a recent evaluation of the effectiveness of the under-occupation deduction policy for social rented housing.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has not recently evaluated the effectiveness of the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy.
Information on the number of households subjected to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy, by nations and regions, is available on Stat-Xplore via the Housing Benefit and Universal Credit official statistics (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/). The information can be found in the Households on Universal Credit dataset, and the Housing Benefit – Data from April 2018 dataset, and are currently available to August 2025.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest, and if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required. There is also a Universal Credit Official Statistics: Stat-Xplore user guide.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department will publish (a) national and (b) regional breakdowns of under-occupied social rented housing.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has not recently evaluated the effectiveness of the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy.
Information on the number of households subjected to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy, by nations and regions, is available on Stat-Xplore via the Housing Benefit and Universal Credit official statistics (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/). The information can be found in the Households on Universal Credit dataset, and the Housing Benefit – Data from April 2018 dataset, and are currently available to August 2025.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest, and if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required. There is also a Universal Credit Official Statistics: Stat-Xplore user guide.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to prevent fraud relating to Universal Credit recipients claiming for properties they no longer occupy.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since Autumn Budget 2024, the Government has committed to gross savings of £14.6bn up to the end of 2030/31 from fraud, error and debt activity in GB, which includes savings from the new powers contained within the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act, an extension to continue Targeted Case Reviews to check accuracy of Universal Credit (UC) claims at risk of being incorrect until 2031 and the introduction of periodic redeclaration for UC claims to ensure claim accuracy, reduce fraud and error, and prevent avoidable debt.