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 merits of (a) making the uplift to universal credit and working tax credit permanent and (b) extending that uplift to legacy benefits.

The Government introduced a package of temporary welfare measures worth around £9.3 billion this year to help with the financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included the £20 weekly increase to the Universal Credit Standard Allowance rates and Working Tax Credit basic element as temporary measures for the 20/21 tax year. There are no plans to extend this to legacy benefits.