The benefit cap restricts the amount of support a working-age household can receive from the social security system. Those most likely to be capped are lone parents, larger families and families with young children.
Scotland is already mitigating the benefit cap as fully as possible within its devolved powers. In Northern Ireland, a supplementary payment is available for some households with children affected by the cap.
“The food’s gone up, electric’s gone up, everything seems to have gone up, everything’s gone up and it was bad enough before but now it’s just, your life ain’t any life, we don’t go out, we don’t get to do nothing, we’re just here… I can’t afford to use the gas in this house is freezing cold."
From our briefing: Falling further behind: hardship among benefit capped families as prices rise
The logic for the benefit cap is fundamentally flawed. It has a negligible effect on work incentives, while taking money away from the poorest families. The main reason families are unable to earn enough from paid work to escape the cap is there are significant barriers to employment, such as ill health or childcare.
Removing the benefit cap would help some of the poorest families across the country.
Some recent posts from us that refer to the benefit cap.
Eleven major charities have today written to the Chancellor urging her to make a commitment in next…
A large-scale survey of secondary school children shows those on low incomes are missing school…
What is the evidence on the impact of the benefit cap on children and families in poverty? In…
In advance of the autumn Budget on 30 October, CPAG submitted evidence to the government on the…
Please note that the benefit cap is different from the two-child limit. Lifting the benefit cap and the two-child limit will immediately lift 400,000 children out of poverty, and 950,000 children will be living in less deep poverty.
