Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 9
Second Report - The Cost of Living
Published 27 Jul 2022
Paragraph 39
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee The cost of living All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the decision by the Government to exempt the cost of living payments from the benefit cap so that those most in need of support can receive it. This decision suggests, however, that the Department knows that the cap is set too low to effectively cover households’ now spiralling costs of living. Regardless of the changes made when the Fixed Term Parliaments Act was repealed, it was clearly not the intention of the original legislation that the benefit cap go more than six years without even being reviewed, let alone adjusted for inflation. The benefit cap should be reviewed urgently—and certainly no later than the end of 2022—to ensure it is in line with average household incomes and increasing rent/energy/food costs—the results of this review should be published. Furthermore, the cap must be uprated this year.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Second Report - The Cost of Living (HC 129), paragraph 39, 27 July 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 8 September 2022 (deadline 27 September 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sets out its position on the Committee's recommendations on the cost of living, declining several (including a review of benefit adequacy and a written Pension Credit strategy) while describing existing communications work and support measures.
- On benefit uprating, DWP says it "will not be making any IT changes" to legacy benefits as they close, and that there are "no plans to change the up-rating period", because a consistent period means peaks and troughs "even out over time".
- The Government says it does not intend to conduct a specific review of benefit adequacy; in the autumn the Secretary of State will undertake her statutory annual up-rating review and may increase benefits "if she considers it appropriate".
- On the benefit cap, the Government says the cost-of-living payment is exempt from it, and that the Secretary of State "is reviewing further advice on this". It gives no date.
- On Pension Credit, DWP "does not consider that a written strategy or targets for take-up" are required, citing existing work with organisations; it is "looking at processes" that might be simplified but says automatic awards are not possible.