Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have conducted an equality analysis on the impact of the benefit cap on children in households with protected characteristics, including lone parent families and families from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of the Department’s compliance with the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty, assessments of the impacts of the benefit cap policy on protected characteristics of people in capped households are undertaken to support with legislative changes.
The government is committed to monitoring the impacts of the benefit cap and publishes quarterly statistics on the number of households capped. The most recent statistics were published in December 2025 for the quarter to August 2025.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the benefit cap on demand for local authority hardship support, including discretionary housing payments, and how this affects the ability of councils to support children who are in need.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the financial year 2024/25, 9% of Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) expenditure was recorded by Local Authorities in England and Wales as related to the Benefit Cap (9%) and 7% of expenditure being used on a combination of welfare reforms (including the Benefit Cap, Local Housing Allowance and Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy). This is taken from the DWP publication “Use of Discretionary Housing Payments: analysis of end-of-year returns from local authorities, data for April 2024 to March 2025”.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any relationship between the benefit cap and demand for statutory children's services, including child protection referrals and family support interventions.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made by my department.
Our Best Start in Life Strategy, published in July 2025, sets out how we will expand and strengthen family service and improve the accessibility, affordability and quality of early years education and school-aged childcare in England.
From September 2025, 30 hours of Government-funded childcare is now available to eligible working parents of children from nine months old, enabling thousands more children to start school ready to learn (and giving parents greater freedom over jobs and working hours).
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the benefit cap on (1) access to early years provision for children, (2) school readiness, and (3) early developmental outcomes.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made by my department.
Our Best Start in Life Strategy, published in July 2025, sets out how we will expand and strengthen family service and improve the accessibility, affordability and quality of early years education and school-aged childcare in England.
From September 2025, 30 hours of Government-funded childcare is now available to eligible working parents of children from nine months old, enabling thousands more children to start school ready to learn (and giving parents greater freedom over jobs and working hours).
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the interests of children are assessed in the design and ongoing operation of the benefit cap; and what mechanisms exist to ensure that the welfare of children is considered when policy is being decided.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The benefit cap aims to incentivise work as, where possible, it is in the best interest of children to be in working households. Living in a working family has a positive impact on children’s educational attainment, mental health, and long-term aspirations. The Government is driving forward labour market interventions that will deliver a step-change in support and help parents to enter and progress in work.
The Government is committed to monitoring the impacts of the benefit cap and publishes quarterly statistics on the number of households capped. The most recent statistics were published in December 2025 for the quarter to August 2025.
The Government continues to review research from and engages with a range of organisations representing children and families, to ensure the social security system provides the support people need.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to strengthen leak detection, odourisation and public health-related standards for gas used in domestic homes and other premises used for cooking fuelled by gas.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is already robust regulation in place to detect leaks and odourise gas. Gas Industry standards are set by the relevant industry standard setting bodies, for example, the Institute for Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM), British Standards Institute (BSI) and Liquid Gas UK.
The Health and Safety Executive has regulatory responsibility for public health-related standards in commercial premises, but not in domestic homes.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the long-term consequences of the benefit cap on the life chances of children, including future employment prospects, health inequalities and intergenerational poverty.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises that growing up in a working household helps to tackle the long-term impacts of poverty on a child’s future health, employment, and life chances. The benefit cap aims to incentivise work and exemptions to the cap are in place for households in work earning at least £846 each month, rising to £881 each month from April 2026.
The Child Poverty Strategy kickstarts action and ambition over the next ten years to respond to the current crisis of child poverty now while delivering longer term change to fundamentally fix the structural drivers of child poverty.
The Government is investing in the future of our children and is removing the two child limit in Universal Credit in April 2026. This will lift 450,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this parliament and is the most cost-effective and quickest way of reducing child poverty and the impacts that child poverty can bring.
In addition, the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 places a duty on the Secretary of State to report annually on the life chances of children in non-working households and educational attainment as two main factors leading to child poverty. These were last released on 27 March: “Workless households and educational attainment statutory indicators 2025 - GOV.UK”
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-UK nationals have received Winter Fuel Payments for the following financial years a) 2024/25 b) 2025/2026, and what was the total value of Winter Fuel Payments paid to those non-UK nationals in each of those financial years.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-UK nationals have received the State Pension for the following financial years a) 2024/25 b) 2025/2026, and what was the total value of State Pension paid to those non-UK nationals in each of those financial years.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-UK nationals have received Pension Credit for the following financial years a) 2024/25 b) 2025/2026, and what was the total value of Pension Credit paid to those non-UK nationals in each of those financial years.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.