Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to introduce a minimum income guarantee for people in receipt of social security.

The Government recognises the importance of the social security safety net and the role Universal Credit has to play in tackling poverty and making work pay.

In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we announced that we will improve the adequacy of the standard allowance with the first sustained above inflation rise in the basic rate of Universal Credit since it was introduced. This increase will be for new and existing customers and will help millions of people. According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, this is the largest sustained increase in the headline rate of benefit since at least 1980.

We recently introduced a new Fair Repayment Rate for Universal Credit customers, reducing the overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer's standard allowance. This enables approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households to retain on average £420 a year of their award. This increase will be for new and existing customers and will help millions of people with a cash increase of £725 by the end of the Parliament.