Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the cost of living crisis on low-income households in Redditch.

The Government is working to address cost-of-living pressures facing families across the country through targeted measures including raising the minimum wage for workers aged 21 and over, which increased by 4.1 per cent to £12.71 an hour.

The removal of the two-child limit introduced as part of the Child Poverty Strategy will lift 450,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures set out in the Strategy.

These interventions will lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began. We have also confirmed over £600 million for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme for the next three financial years.

On 1 April 2026, we introduced a new Crisis and Resilience Fund in England. This fund aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities including support with food, as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis.