Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the potential effect of increasing benefits in line with living costs on levels of child poverty.

No assessment has been made.

The Secretary of State undertakes an annual review of benefits and pensions, and the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in the year to September this approach has been in place since 1987 is the latest figure that the Secretary of State can use to allow sufficient time for the required legislative and operational changes before new rates can be introduced at the start of the new financial year.

CPI has been the default inflation measure for the government’s statutory annual review of benefits since 2011.

CPI has a basket of goods and services that is relevant to pensioners and benefit recipients, is the target level of inflation used by the Bank of England and is an internationally recognised measure.

National Statistics on the number of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Latest statistics, covering up until 2020/21, on the number of children in low income in the UK can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1064433/hbai-summary-results.ods

The latest statistics show that in the UK in 2020/21 there were 200 thousand fewer children in absolute poverty, before housing costs, than in 2009/10.

This Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting all low-income families, and believes work is the best route out of poverty. With around 1.32 million vacancies across the UK our focus is firmly on supporting people into and to progress. Our multi-billion-pound Plan for Jobs, which has been expanded by £500 million, and Way to Work is a concerted drive across the UK to help half a million currently out of work people into jobs by the end of June 2022.

We are giving the lowest earners a pay rise by increasing the National Living Wage by 6.6% to £9.50 from April 2022, and making permanent changes to Universal Credit, worth £1000 a year on average, to two million in-work claimants.

We recognise that some people require additional support and from April, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion.