Concern Grows Over Benefit Cap

A think tank set up by Work and Pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has expressed serious concerns with the government’s benefit cap for workless families. A ‘report card’ issued by the Centre for Social Justice gives the government 8 out of 10 for its welfare reforms, but warns that the introduction of a £26,000 benefit cap for families where no-one works will cause hardship.
The report card says that overall the CSJ believes the Welfare Reform Bill marks ‘an exciting start in transforming the department for Work and Pensions from an administration and process hub into the poverty-fighting arm of government it should be.’ But it also warns that introducing the cap ‘in one fell swoop’ from 2013 will ‘bring hardship to as many as 50,000 large families who will have the rug pulled from under them overnight. Read more on Inside Housing.