Benefits next year are on course to be 6% below their pre-pandemic levels, financial experts predict.
Working-age benefits are uprated every April in line with the previous September’s CPI inflation figure, which this morning the ONS put at 10.1%. If the Government uprates benefits with inflation, most will go up by 10.1% in April.
However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) calculates that this will leave the real value of working-age benefits at 6% below pre-pandemic levels, equivalent to almost £500 per year for the average out-of-work claimant.
The IFS also noted that this assumes that benefit recipients will continue to receive equivalent support for rising energy bills as they do under the Energy Price Guarantee.
