Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 62
Analyse support for families with children and account for family size in future payments.
Recommendation
While the UK support has been relatively generous compared to other countries, other countries have issued specific support for families and children, which the UK Government has not. Given the flat rate nature of the cost of living payments, the Government should conduct an analysis of the value of the support received by low- income families with children compared to the support received by single people and couples. Further, future cost of living support payments should take account of family size.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges that Cost of Living Payments were not proportional to family size but were simplified for quick delivery, and points to the ongoing evaluation of COLPs and the Household Support Fund as avenues for understanding support for families.
Paragraph Reference:
62
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government recognises that Cost of Living Payments were not made proportionally to family size. Some Cost of Living Payments have been based on eligibility to means- tested benefits but delivered as consistent amounts to those found eligible. The Payments were kept simple to deliver millions of payments quickly and accurately. Cost of Living Payments enabled us to quickly target additional support in exceptional circumstances pending the statutory annual review of State pension and benefit rates which comes into effect in April each year. An evaluation of the Cost of Living Payments is underway. This will seek to understand their effectiveness as a means of support for low-income and vulnerable households. As previously mentioned, since October 2021, the UK Government has also provided over £2 billion to local authorities in England through the Household Support Fund. This includes the current year-long Household Support Fund extension providing £842 million from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Previous iterations of the Household Support Fund included grant conditions around supporting particular groups, including households with children and pensioner households. These conditions were introduced to ensure there was support available for these particularly vulnerable groups through periods of heightened pressure. For the most recent iterations of the Household Support Fund, these conditions have been removed in order to provide local authorities with maximum flexibility to support those most in need in their area. Despite the removal of these ringfences, local authorities have continued to support households with children via the Household Support Fund. Support for households with children represented: • 80% of HSF1 spend (6 October 2021 – 31 March 2022) • 55% of HSF2 spend (1 April 2022 – 30 September 2022) • 63% of HSF3 spend (1 October 2022 – 31 March 2023) MI was published for HSF1 to 3 following the completion of each scheme. We will similarly look to publish MI for HSF4 following the completion of the scheme and subject to the usual quality assurance processes. An evaluation of HSF4 is also currently underway, which will seek to understand the delivery and impacts of scheme funding.