Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that there is no increase in levels of child poverty as a result of the economic effects of the covid-19 outbreak.

This Government committed to supporting everyone through this emergency and has announced an unprecedented programme of support to mitigate the strain that Covid-19 is putting on households, livelihoods, businesses and our nation’s economy. This includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, both of which are helping to protect people’s livelihoods.

We have also taken steps to strengthen our safety net welfare system, which will provide over £6.5bn of additional support. Measures include:

• Increasing Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit by over £1,000 a year for this financial year, benefiting over 4 million households.
• Increasing Local Housing Allowance rates - putting an average of £600 into people’s pockets.