LONDON, November 22 2023

Becca Lyon, head of child poverty, Save the Children UK, said: "The Chancellor’s decision to increase benefits in line with September’s level of inflation should never have been in doubt. Parents need security in order to raise their children, and the uncertainty around this has placed enormous stress on families. The UK government must end this annual game playing with the household budgets of struggling families.

"We welcome the Chancellor ending the three-year housing benefit freeze. Right now, record numbers of children are in temporary accommodation, and this announcement will go some way to ensuring children have safe, secure homes to grow up in.

"We have one message for the Chancellor on his Back to Work Plan: sanctions don’t work, and only push families into further hardship."

Notes

 Notes: 

Work and Pensions Select Committee, 2018.

"At best, evidence on the effectiveness of sanctions is mixed, and at worst, it shows them to be counterproductive."

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmworpen/955/95502.htm