By bizn_fun 
Typically, September’s Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation, which this time is 3.8%, is the benchmark for raising benefits the following April.
Some benefits, including all the main disability benefits, such as personal independence payment, attendance allowance and disability living allowance, as well as carer’s allowance, will rise by at least as much as prices have been rising. That is a legal requirement.
Universal credit (UC) – which is the most common benefit, claimed by seven and a half million people – is expected to rise by more than inflation next year. But ministers have the final say.
Currently UC is expected to rise by about 6.2%, reflecting the 3.8% September inflation figure, plus an additional 2.3% uplift already outlined in government legislation.
That would mean the standard UC allowance would rise from £92 to £98 per week for single claimants, and from £145 to £154 per week for couples, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation calculates.