DWP: Benefit Cap 'Not Designed As Cost-Saving Measure'

The lowered overall household benefits cap was never “designed as a cost-saving” measure, a DWP spokesperson has said. The government has insisted that the total household benefit cap – which is reduced from £26,000 to £20,000 (£23,000 in London) – was designed to get people back into work and was not designed as a cost-saving measure. This is despite the cap being included in a list of measures last year to enable former chancellor George Osborne to achieve £12bn of welfare cuts. The DWP was responding to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) today that suggested any cost-saving from the policy would be “trivial”. Read the IFS report on their website.