Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to uprate benefits annually in line with prices and living standards.

Successive Governments have used the Social Security Administration Act 1992 which places a statutory duty on the Secretary of State to review the rates of State Pension and benefits each year, following a review of trends in prices and earnings over the previous year.

The Secretary of State’s review ahead of 2023/34 has been completed and State Pensions and benefits will rise by 10.1% in April 2023, in line with the increase in the Consumer Prices Index in the year to September 2022.