Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential future effect on households in (a) Scotland and (b) the UK of the freeze on working age benefits consequential on the upward revision by the Office of Budget Responsibility of CPI inflation in its Economic and Fiscal Outlook of November 2016.

The freeze on working-age benefits came into effect in April 2016. The Government does not hold a costing of this measure based on the Autumn Statement inflation assumptions, as neither it nor the OBR updates costings of previously announced measures that have already come into force. At the Autumn Statement the Government published analysis showing the cumulative impact of taxation, welfare and public spending measures implemented over this Parliament, in 2019-20, on UK households. This analysis included the freeze on working age benefits and the latest OBR economic forecasts.

This analysis can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-2016-documents