Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants had the minimum income floor applied during the qualifying period for the first Cost of Living Payment with the 25 May 2022 deadline; and of those people, how many received a nil payment due to the minimum income floor.

During the qualifying period for the first Cost of Living Payment 80,660 Universal Credit claimants were subject to the minimum income floor (MIF) of which, 4850 earned below their minimum income floor and received a nil payment.

However, the government is providing over £15 billion in further support. This package is in addition to the over £22 billion announced previously, with government support for the cost of living now totalling over £37 billion this year.

This means with the £150 Council Tax Rebate and the £400 being paid to all domestic electricity customer millions of the lowest income households will get £1,200 of one-off support in total this year to help with the cost of living, with all domestic electricity customers receiving at least £400.

The Energy Bills Support Scheme has been doubled to a one-off £400 grant, and not recovered in future years. Energy suppliers will deliver this support to households with a domestic electricity meter over six months from October.

This support is in addition to the £150 Council Tax rebate for households in England in Council Tax bands A-D, which was announced in February.