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Select committee: Treasury Committee

Fourth Special Report - Autumn Statement 2022 – Cost of living payments: Government response to the Committee’s Eighth Report

Published 27 February 2023

Treasury Committee Autumn 2022 Fiscal Events Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance

The government's response

This document responds to Eighth Report - Autumn Statement 2022 – Cost of living payments.

This is the government's response, published 27 February 2023.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government declines to adopt the Committee's recommendation to mirror the Energy Bill Support Scheme payments model, while setting out that it has already moved to three means-tested Cost of Living Payments in 2023-24 and provides existing analysis in place of some further analysis requested.

  • On more payments, the Government says it "did consider" more lump sums and announced on 3 January 2023 that the £900 payment for means-tested benefit claimants will be delivered in three payments (Spring 2023, Autumn 2023 and Spring 2024).
  • It does not accept monthly payments, saying DWP's 'Ad Hoc Payment System' makes it "not possible" to pay monthly for six months "without compromising delivery of DWP’s core benefits".
  • On analysis of the Household Support Fund's impact, it says this is "not possible" in the distributional analysis because Management Information lacks sufficient detail, but HM Treasury "will consider what data becomes available" as a matter of routine.
  • On work incentives, it says qualifying dates will be announced after they have passed, to "deter fraud and to mitigate risks to work incentives", and that a taper would be "extremely complex and potentially costly".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

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