By Richard Johnstone | 10 January 2014
Almost 33,000 households have so far been affected by the government’s £26,000 annual cap on benefits, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions have revealed.
Publishing data on the impact of the welfare reform between April and November last year, the DWP said the region most affected by the cap was London, where more than 15,000 households have been included.
The capital is followed by the South East of England (3,431), the West Midlands (2,437) and the North West (2,292). In each of the top ten areas, the cap has been applied to more than 500 households.
The cap limits the amount of benefits paid to workless households to £500 a week for families with children and £350 a week for those without. If the amount of benefit is set to be exceeded, Housing Benefit will be cut to ensure a household’s total stays within the cap.
According to the DWP data, which was published yesterday, nearly 150 households have seen their total benefits reduced by at least £350 a week since the nationwide rollout of the scheme. More than 1,000 single people without children have also been included in the cap.
Welfare reform minister Lord Freud said the figures showed the cap was ‘returning fairness to the system by ensuring that families on benefits can no longer get more money than the average family earns’.
He added: ‘It is not right that some families on benefits were receiving amounts of money that hardworking taxpayers could only dream of and our welfare reforms are working to fix the system.
‘By exempting people who are receiving Working Tax Credit, the benefit cap is increasing incentives to move into work and we already know that around 19,000 claimants potentially affected by the benefit cap have found jobs.’
