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Certify a policyengine-uk with the UC Act 2025 standard allowance uplift (2.135.0 or later) in the UK bundle #702
Description
Problem
policyengine.py 6.7.5 (served by the sim API today) bundles policyengine-uk 2.130.1, and 6.10.0 bundles 2.132.6. Neither applies the Universal Credit Act 2025 standard allowance uplift for 2027-28 to 2029-30. In both, gov.dwp.universal_credit.rebalancing.standard_allowance_uplift exists, but no formula reads it.
policyengine-uk fixed this in PolicyEngine/policyengine-uk#2242 (for PolicyEngine/policyengine-uk#2239), merged 2026-10-16. The first release with it is 2.135.0 (the latest on PyPI is 2.147.2).
Effect
The 2027 UC standard allowance in the API rises by CPI only. For a single claimant aged 25 or over, /uk/calculate returns £5,216.06 a year for 2027 (£434.67 a month). The UC Act adds about 0.8 points on top of CPI for 2027-28. As a result:
- every UK baseline from 2027 understates UC spending;
- reforms that change the standard allowance are scored against a baseline that is too low. A freeze of UC rates in April 2027 scored £930m (sim API report 4729). With the uplift in the baseline, the saving would be higher.
Request
Certify a policyengine-uk release of 2.135.0 or later in the UK bundle (data-release claim, as in #491 and #536), and release policyengine.py, so the sim API can take it. policyengine-api's household calculations also run 2.130.1 and need the same update.
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Activity
PavelMakarchuk commentedon Oct 22, 2026
Closing: this is already covered by the automated certification process. Each new policyengine-uk release opens a "Certify UK candidate" PR (for example #696 for 2.142.0, which includes the UC Act 2025 uplift from PolicyEngine/policyengine-uk#2242). Those candidates close because their policyengine-uk-data (1.58.2 / 1.59.1) is not on main's data line (1.58.1). The blocker is moving main's UK data line, not a request to certify.
Impact to keep in mind while the data line stays on 1.58.1: the served bundle has no UC Act 2025 standard allowance uplift, so UK baselines from 2027 understate UC spending, and UC reforms that change the standard allowance are scored against a baseline that is too low.
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