Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what analysis his Department undertook in advance of the Spring Statement 2022 of the impact of the policy of uprating by September 2021 consumer price inflation on the inflation-adjusted value of social security benefits.

CPI has been the default inflation measure for the government’s statutory annual review of benefits since 2011 and it is standard practice for the government to uprate in line with September CPI, which was 3.1% in 2021. September CPI is the latest available figure confirmed by the ONS prior to the annual review and allows sufficient time for the legislative and complex delivery process to take place.

In addition to uprating social security benefits, the government is also providing support to families worth over £22 billion in 2022-23 to help families with cost of living pressures. This includes cutting the Universal Credit taper rate and increasing work allowances to make sure work pays, freezing alcohol duties to keep costs down, and providing millions of households with up to £350 to help with rising energy bills. At the Spring Statement, the Chancellor went further, announcing an increase to the annual National Insurance Primary Threshold and Lower Profits Limit to £12,570, and an additional £500m to help the most vulnerable with the cost of essentials through the Household Support Fund. Families and businesses across the UK will also benefit from a 12-month cut in fuel duty of 5 pence per litre, the largest cash terms cut, that has ever been applied to all fuel duty rates at once. This cut represents savings for consumers worth almost £2.4 billion over the next year. And, from 1st April 2022, the National Living Wage (NLW) increased by 6.6% to £9.50 an hour for workers aged 23, which will benefit more than 2 million workers. This means an increase of over £1,000 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the NLW.