Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what modelling his Department has done to estimate the potential effect on household income for tax credit claimant families who are migrated to universal credit before 2020; and if he will place that modelling in the Library.

Priti Patel

The government is committed to moving the UK from a high tax, high welfare, low wage society to a lower tax, lower welfare, higher wage society. This remains the case, and Universal Credit (UC) is delivering this.

UC is fundamentally different from the current legacy benefit system and supports people into work and encourages them to earn more.

Therefore there is no meaningful way of comparing an unreformed Tax Credit system with UC. The Government has committed to transitional arrangements as we reform the benefits and Tax Credit system. Those transferred by DWP from tax credits to UC will receive Transitional Protection. In addition, estimates of entitlements under UC of the sort requested will vary depending on assumptions on the level of earnings.