Raising three kids on £3 a week: The reality of the benefit cap
The benefit cap limits the amount of social security support some of the poorest households across the UK can receive, regardless of their need. Families with children, particularly those living in high rent areas, are disproportionately affected.
When the cap was first introduced in 2013, it affected 28,000 families. However, as the cost of living has skyrocketed the cap is now affecting many more families all over England and Wales. The latest stats show that 124,000 households with nearly 300,000 children are capped.
A lone parent family with three children can now expect to be capped across 95 per cent of England and Wales, compared to 60 per cent just two years ago in 2023.
The cap leaves all affected families with very little to live on once housing costs are accounted for. In inner London, a lone parent family with three children can be left with just £3 a week to live on after paying rent. In Brighton, a similar family would be left with just £89 a week to live on after rent.
The government must scrap the benefit cap in its upcoming child poverty strategy. It pushes 300,000 children into even deeper poverty, does not achieve its purported aims and would only cost £300 million to abolish.