More than 200,000 in UK hit by benefit cap

MORE than 200,000 households in Britain were living with their benefits capped at the start of the year – the vast majority families with children, figures show.

The number of households subject to the benefit cap was up by 13 per cent (24,000) in February compared to last November, according to Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics.

It is also more than double the number of households subject to the cap in February 2020 (79,000), just before the first national coronavirus lockdown was imposed and the number of new claimants soared.

As of February 2021, 180,000 households had their Universal Credit (UC) capped and 24,000 had their housing benefit capped, the DWP said.

The most recent quarterly rise is mainly due to UC claimants being newly capped, it added.

The cap, which some campaigners want to see abolished, limits the total amount of benefits low-earning or non-working claimants can receive.

UC claimants are exempt if they earn at least £617 a month, and can get a nine-month grace period which exempts them if they earned at least this each month in the previous year.

Campaigners said this set of data for the first time includes people who lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic, claimed UC and have been newly capped after their grace period expired. This number will rise as these periods continue to end, they say.

Households had their benefits capped by an average of £55 a week as of February, the DWP said.

Alison Garnham, chief of the Child Poverty Action Group, said the cap has always been an “unjust punishment” for families, adding: “Most families affected by it can’t work to escape it – often because they are looking after young children or can’t find affordable childcare they can combine with work and single parenting.”