Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Rejected
Paragraph: 133
Reduce time between inflation measure and benefit uprating implementation, retaining consistency.
Recommendation
We recognise the Department cannot shorten the reference period for benefit uprating due to the DWP IT systems used to uprate legacy benefits. In the longer term, and following the completion of migration to Universal Credit, the Government should aim to reduce the length of time between the measure of inflation used for uprating, and the uprating implementation date. The Government should retain this new, shorter uprating reference period each year to maintain consistency within the system.
Government Response Summary
The government rejected the recommendation, stating it has no plans to change the length of time between inflation measurement and uprating implementation in the short to medium term due to various interdependencies, despite IT modernisation for State Pensions.
Paragraph Reference:
133
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
State pensions will be moved to a new modern IT platform, starting in 2025, under current planning assumptions. Other benefits including disability benefits, contributory benefits and Carer’s Allowance will be addressed as part of other programmes when possible. However, this migration to modern IT services is unlikely in the short to medium term to change the uprating timetable due to interdependencies across government, such as the requirement to pass data to local authorities to assess Housing Benefit for pensioners, and to HM Revenue and Customers for the calculation of 12 million tax notices. In view of these considerations and those set out in its response to Recommendation 10, the Government has no plans to change the length of time between the measures of inflation and earnings growth used for uprating, and the uprating implementation date. It should be noted that using a consistent measure of inflation and earnings growth means that peaks and troughs are smoothed over time; and that, in the case of CPI, the increase in the year to April is, on average over many years, higher than the increase in the year to September half the time and lower the other half. 12 Benefit levels in the UK overnment’s response to the Committee’s Second eport