Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his contribution of 8 January 2013, Official Report, column 190, (1) what assessment he has made of the financial effect on the income of disabled people of restricting benefit rises to one per cent over the next three years;
[136988]
Answer
An impact assessment of the measures contained within the 2013-14 Up-rating Order, which includes the impact on disabled households, will be published when it is laid later this month.
For 2014-15 and 2015-16, the Department published an impact assessment on 8 January 2013 which covered the impacts of the uprating changes covered by the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill.
The Department estimates that there is no financial effect from the Bill on approximately 66% of households where someone describes themselves as disabled.
The Department estimates that approximately 34% of households where someone describes themselves disabled are affected by this Bill with an average change of income of around -£3 a week in 2015-16 compared to uprating by the consumer prices index (CPI).
This represents around 3.4 million households in Great Britain.
It is not possible to provide information for United Kingdom or for each parliamentary constituency level.
Notes:
1. These estimates have been made using the Department's Policy Simulation Model, which is based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS), and is consistent with the impact assessment which was published in January 2013.
2. Numbers rounded to the nearest 1% or 0.1 million households.
3. Disability as defined in the Disability Discrimination Act/Equality Act (2010).