You asked
Could you please tell me how much the government has spent on State Pension and Incapacity Benefits payments since the start of March 2020 to the end of August compared to the same time span in 2019.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We publish data on the amount the government has spent on State Pension and Incapacity Benefits payments on an annual basis. Please see Table 5.4.2S in the Bluebook publication for this information. The next edition to this publication is scheduled to be released on 30 October 2020, which will include data up to 2019.
Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide you with a monthly breakdown of this data. The cut of data that we receive from the Department of Work and Pensions is used by us to produce an annual analysis and is therefore not suitable for the breakdown requested. In order to comply with your request, we would be required to pull data from across two financial years and receive quality assurance from the DWP for us to publish this data. Therefore, we do not hold data that would meet your needs.
This request would be better placed with the DWP, as they are the owners of the data. They can be contacted via email at freedom-of-information-request@dwp.gov.uk.