Skip to main content

Social Security Benefits: Poverty

Question for Department for Work and Pensions

UIN HL8284, tabled on 7 June 2023

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of people who would no longer be in poverty if the benefit cap were (1) abolished, and (2) returned to its original levels.

Answered on

16 June 2023

It is not possible to produce a robust estimate of the effect of the impact of the removal of the benefit cap on the number of people in poverty. The benefit cap continues to provide a strong work incentive and fairness for hardworking taxpaying households, whilst providing a reasonable safety net of support for the most vulnerable.