Social Security Benefits: Uprating

(asked on 14th December 2017) - View Source

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 change in the real terms value of the maximum amount of benefit entitlement as a result of inflation since the introduction of the benefit cap in November 2016.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 19th December 2017

The Work and Pensions Secretary of State has a duty to review the Lower Benefit Cap levels once in each Parliament with regard to the national economic situation and any other matters he considers relevant, as set out in the 2016 Welfare Reform and Work Act. New lower and tiered Benefit Cap rates were introduced from November 2016 prior to the election in June 2017. We intend to review the Lower Benefit Cap during this Parliament.

For context, outside of London, around 4 in 10 households have net earnings less than the £20,000 cap level. In London around 4 in 10 households have net earnings of less than the £23,000 cap level.

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