To ask the Minister for Communities, further to the announcement in the Autumn Budget of a new Fair Repayment Rate to reduce Universal Credit deductions from 25 per cent to 15 per cent, will he consider going further and introduce a minimum income floor to ensure claimants can still afford to pay for essential items.

I welcome the Chancellor’s announcement.

The combined impact of the Fair Repayment Rate reduction along with the current Benefit Cap mitigation means that UC claimants in NI with deductions will keep a minimum of 85% of their UC personal allowance – a key recommendation of the recently published Joseph Rowntree report “A protective minimum floor in Universal Credit”.

In terms of a minimum income floor, this already exists within Universal Credit and is only relevant to the calculation of self-employed earnings.