Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the financial resilience of households.

Information on levels of household savings is published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” statistics, the latest available being Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2025 - GOV.UK. Estimates for the UK population are available in the “population-hbai-detailed-breakdown-2024-25-tables”, for example in sheet “3_2_db_AHC”. Data can also be accessed through Stat-Xplore at https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.

The Government is committed to improving the financial resilience of households by supporting incomes, helping families meet essential costs and providing targeted support to those facing financial hardship. This includes the first sustained above-inflation increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance since its introduction, reforms to Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate, and providing £1 billion per year (including Barnett impact) to reform crisis support through the new Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF). The CRF provides the first multi-year framework for locally delivered crisis support in England and is designed to prevent people from falling into crisis, or from falling further when they're already struggling, while supporting longer-term financial resilience.