Benefit Cap Could Drop 40,000 Children into Poverty

Tens of thousands of children face being plunged into poverty by government plans to lower the household benefit cap to £23,000, leaked advice to ministers shows.  An internal government assessment, seen by the Guardian, shows that if parents are unable to find extra work the policy will put 40,000 more children on or below the official poverty line, on top of the 50,000 already affected under the current rate. Marked “sensitive” and sent to the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, two weeks after the general election, the civil service memo forecasts that “around 40,000 more ... children might in the absence of any behaviour change, find themselves in poverty as a result of reducing the cap to £23,000”. Read more on the Guardian website.