Ten years since the benefit cap was introduced across Britain, new research shows families affected by the policy have as little as £44 a week to live on after they’ve paid housing costs.
Just over a third (34%) of people on universal credit who are subject to the benefit cap – which the Government claims incentivises work – are assessed by the DWP as not required to look for a job because they are caring for very young children, new FOI data for Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) shows. A further 18% are already in work but don’t earn enough to reach the threshold for the cap to be lifted.
The benefit cap was introduced in 2013, and limits the total amount of support some low-earning and non-working families can receive from the social security system. What has been the impact of this policy? What will a recently announced change to the cap mean for families? And does this change go far enough?
A report commissioned by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland from the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University has found a widening gap between the cost of raising a child in Scotland and actual family incomes, despite the significant impact of Scottish government policies and lower childcare costs.
Are poverty and income inequality separate issues determined by different factors? Can low levels of poverty co-exist with high levels of inequality? For most of the last 200 years, these key measures of social fragility have been viewed as separate conditions, with antipoverty policy focused on raising the income floor, largely ignoring what has been happening at the top. But what is the relationship between inequality and the anti-poverty agenda?
