Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a triple lock protection for child benefit to adjust for rising living costs.
The Child Benefit rate is frozen for four tax years from 2016-17 to 2019-20 under the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. Between 1980 and 2014 spending on working-age welfare trebled in real terms.
The government continues to protect the most vulnerable in society. The government will be spending £10bn more on welfare for people of working age and children by the end of this parliament than it does now.