http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/22/section/1Universal Credit Act 2025Statute Law Database2026-04-08Expert Participation2026-04-06
Universal creditStandard allowance for tax years 2026-27 to 2029-30
1
1
The Secretary of State must exercise a relevant power in order to secure that the amounts of the standard allowance for tax years 2026-27 to 2029-30 are at least the amounts calculated for each tax year in accordance with subsection (2).
2
The minimum amounts of the standard allowance for a tax year are calculated as follows—
Step 1
Where the tax year is 2026-27, take the amounts of the standard allowance for tax year 2025-26.
Where the tax year is 2027-28, 2028-29 or 2029-30, take the amounts resulting from Step 2 for the previous tax year.
Step 2
Increase the amounts identified in Step 1 by the relevant CPI percentage for the tax year.
Step 3
Increase the amounts resulting from Step 2 by the relevant uplift percentage for the tax year.
3
The “relevant CPI percentage” for a tax year is the percentage by which the consumer prices index for the September before the start of the tax year is higher than it was for the September before that (or 0% if it is not higher).
4
The table below sets out the relevant uplift percentage for tax years 2026-27 to 2029-30—
| Tax year | Relevant uplift percentage |
|---|
| 2026-27 | 2.3% |
| 2027-28 | 3.1% |
| 2028-29 | 4.0% |
| 2029-30 | 4.8% |
5
Subsections (1) and (2)(c) of section 150 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (annual up-rating of benefits) do not apply, in the tax years ending with 5 April 2026, 5 April 2027, 5 April 2028 and 5 April 2029, to any amount of the standard allowance.
6
In this section—
a
“consumer prices index” means the all items consumer prices index published by the Statistics Board;
b
a “relevant power” means—
i
the power in section 9(2) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, or
ii
the power in section 150(2)(b) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992;
c
“the standard allowance” means the allowance to be included in an award of universal credit under section 9(1) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012;
d
the standard allowance “for” a tax year means the standard allowance applicable for any assessment period commencing on or after the first Monday of that tax year and before the first Monday of the following tax year, and for this purpose “assessment period” has the same meaning as in Part 1 of that Act.
7
In this section and sections 3 to 5—
a
“tax year” means the 12 months beginning with 6 April in any year;
b
“tax year 2025-26” means the tax year beginning on 6 April 2025 (and any corresponding expression in which two years are similarly mentioned is to be read in the same way).
S. 1 in force at Royal Assent