Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill — Clause 1 — Rate of Increase of Certain Benefits, Payments and Tax Credits — 21 Jan 2013 at 20:45

The majority of MPs voted to set the rate of increase of certain benefits, payments and tax credits at 1% rather than in line with prices at 2.2% for 2014 and 2015

MPs were considering the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill. The text of the defeated amendment[1], which had been proposed by Stephen Timms MP, read:

"I beg to move amendment 12, page 1, line 4, leave out ‘by 1%’."

This amendment would have taken effect on clause 1(1) of the bill[2], removing the 'by 1%' from:

  • The Secretary of State must, in each of the tax years ending with 5 April 2014 and 5 April 2015, make an order by statutory instrument increasing each of the relevant sums by 1%.

Without the '1%' MPs would be asking for the relevant benefits, payments and tax credits to increase, but would be leaving it to the Secretary of State alone to determine by how much.

During the debate Mr Timms explained the intent of his defeated amendment[3]:

  • "Uprating should indeed be in line with inflation, as it always was in the past."

The explanatory notes to the bill[4] explain its purpose:

  • In the Autumn Statement, it was announced that in light of the national economic situation, certain working-age social security benefits and payments, and certain elements of tax credits, would be up-rated by 1 percent, rather than prices (as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (‘CPI’), 2.2 per cent), for the tax year 2013-14.
  • The working-age social security benefits and payments in question are:
  • The main rates of Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Housing Benefit; and the work-related activity group component of Employment and Support Allowance Maternity Allowance; and Statutory Adoption, Maternity, Paternity and Sick Pay .

Setting the increase at 1% rather than 2.2% would mean the Government spending less on welfare benefits.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Alliance0 10100.0%
Con273 (+1 tell) 0089.8%
DUP0 2025.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Lab0 223 (+2 tell)087.2%
LDem39 (+1 tell) 0070.2%
PC0 2066.7%
SDLP0 30100.0%
SNP0 60100.0%
Total:312 238086.3%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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