Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the effect on the level of income received by households under universal credit relative to what they received under tax credit if the taper rate for universal credit was set at 55 per cent.

The structures of Universal Credit and the legacy benefit systems are different meaning there will be households with higher notional entitlements, and households with lower notional entitlements whatever the taper rate. However, no household will see a decline in the benefit payments purely as a result of the introduction of Universal Credit

The single universal credit taper means that as people’s earnings increase, their Universal Credit payments reduce at a steady rate, so they can be sure they will always be better off working and earning more. We have also announced a 2% improvement in the Universal Credit single taper meaning more support for hardworking families.