Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)

I thank the noble Lord for his speech and for the points that he has raised on this order. A lot of his points are outside of the scope of these SIs, but I will address them. First, on inflation, it is in fact on the way down. These upratings have been with CPI for many years now, since 2011. Using a consistent period for uprating each year means that, over time, the index balances out. The Government will review benefit rates for child benefit and guardian’s allowance next year to determine whether they have kept pace with inflation for the 2026-27 financial year. The noble Lord made some general points about welfare and essentially the cost of living and what more we are doing for people on low incomes. He is right that energy and food costs take up a greater percentage of their incomes. That is why we annually uprate these benefits. The Government are committed to reducing child poverty. For example, the two-child limit in universal credit will be removed from April 2026 in Great Britain, lifting a projected 450,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament. Our interventions will lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty across a single Parliament since comparable records began. I think it is fair to say that because of that, we have a strategy for welfare and what we are going to do to alleviate poverty. What else are we doing to tackle the cost of living? The Government are committed to meeting the needs of the most vulnerable. In April 2025, the Government introduced a new fair repayment rate to help low-income families on universal credit. This means that approximately 1.2 million families will keep more of their universal credit award each month, with families expected to be better off by around £420. The Government also provided £1 billion, including Barnett impact, to extend the household support fund. We have removed the two-child benefit cap as well, as I said. Across England, we are expanding free breakfast clubs by launching the first phase of national rollout, with 2,000 new schools joining over 2026-27. In line with their commitment to maintain the triple lock for the duration of this Parliament, the Government will also uprate the basic and new state pension by 4.8% and will increase the national living wage from 1 April this year by 4.1% to £12.71. We are doing a lot to help a lot to help people on low incomes and those who rely on benefits, but our main focus is ultimately to get more people back into work. As I set out in my opening remarks, the order we are considering will ensure that child benefit and guardian’s allowance increase in line with the September rate of the consumer prices index, which is 3.8%, thereby ensuring that these benefits keep their value in relation to prices. The regulations on national insurance contributions set the limits and thresholds for the 2026-27 tax year. They allow for the collection of over £200 billion of national insurance contributions to fund contributory benefits, including the state pension, and to fund the NHS. These regulations will also extend the NICs relief for employers hiring qualifying veterans for a final two years up to April 2028. With that, I commend this order to the Committee.