Disability: Cost of Living

(asked on 2nd February 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department plans to take to help support disabled people who cannot work with the cost of living in the 2024-25 financial year.


Answered by
Mims Davies Portrait
Mims Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 8th February 2024

We understand those with complex disabilities require extra support which is why vulnerable people and their needs are rightly one of our priorities. This Government has demonstrated its commitment by providing one of the largest support packages in Europe. Taken together, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £104 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, which includes, among other support, two rounds of means-tested Cost of Living Payments, Disability Cost of Living Payments and Pensioner Cost of Living Payments over 2022/23 and 2023/24. Cost of Living Payments enabled us to target immediate further support during the rising cost of living pressures. The Government has also uprated benefits to reflect increased costs.

Reducing inflation and growing the economy are the most effective way, longer term, to build a more prosperous future for all. This Government committed to halving the rate of inflation, and it has achieved that: inflation has fallen from 11.1% in October 2022 to 4 % in December 2023. Energy prices have significantly fallen in the past year alone and the Quarter 1 2024 price cap of £1,928 has more than halved compared to the previous year when the Quarter 1 2023 price cap peaked at £4,279.

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