Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of lifting the freeze on benefits on account of changes to the level of inflation after the UK leaves the EU.

The Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 has frozen the majority of working-age benefits for four tax years, from 2016-17 to 2019-20. The analysis published at the time of the 2015 Budget assesses the impact of the measures in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. This includes an estimate that the benefit rate freeze would save £3.5 billion in 2019-20 (https://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006C.pdf).