New research from the Public Law Project, authored by Jagna Olejniczak, has revealed the harmful impact of the DWP applying deductions to people’s benefits, which affects over half of households on Universal […]

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is the mechanism by which Housing Benefit (HB) and the Universal Credit housing element (UCHE) are calculated for private renters. The freezing of LHA from 2020 (and other reforms since 2010) meant support for housing costs within the benefits system decreased, causing
significant hardship among many of the people Citizens Advice supports. The single-year uprating in April2024 has not undone all of the impacts of recent LHA policies, and re-freezing LHA from LHA from April 2025 would cause additional hardship.

123,000 households are impacted by the benefit cap across England, Wales and Scotland,1
although the Scottish government mitigates the cap as far as possible with its devolved powers.
The vast majority of those capped – 71 per cent – are lone parents with children. The cap affects households who receive universal credit (UC) or housing benefit and earn less than the equivalent of 16 hours at the national living wage a week – currently £793 a month. It limits the total benefits the household can receive to £1,835 a month outside London or £2,110 inside London, with lower limits for single adults.

Individuals in the UK with health conditions may be entitled to two types of benefits – incapacity benefits (for those whose condition prevents them from working) and disability benefits (to help with extra living costs arising from the disability). Since the onset of the pandemic, there has been a substantial increase in the number of individuals claiming these ‘health-related’ benefits – and official projections suggest that claimant numbers will rise further still. This report explores how the new claimants compare with those who began claims before the COVID-19 pandemic, the geography of new claims, and how the UK’s experience compares with that of other developed countries.

Life costs more if you’re disabled. This report by Scope uses data from the Family Resources Survey to calculate the extra costs faced by disabled households. We call this the ‘Disability Price Tag’.

For this report, 31 members of disabled households took part in interviews. They told how managing household finances alongside extra costs impacted them and their families’ lives.

Millions of vulnerable people to receive help this winter as the Work and Pensions Secretary extends the Household Support Fund

The interaction between Universal Credit and additional means-tested help for working claimants. Drawing on the findings from our wider qualitative longitudinal research study exploring the experience of working claimants on Universal Credit (UC), 1 we explore the interaction between UC, earnings, ‘passported’ benefits and other means-tested help.