'No U-Turn on Benefits Cap' Says Government

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has denied the Government was preparing to dump a proposed £26,000 annual cap on benefit payments in the latest of a series of policy retreats. Welfare reform minister Lord Freud fuelled expectations that the policy would be softened when he detailed a series of exemptions from the proposed cap. Liberal Democrat members of the coalition are understood to be uneasy about the handout limit, set by Chancellor George Osborne at the level of the average income of a working family. But Mr Duncan Smith denied there had been any U-turn. "The benefit cap will restore fairness to the taxpayer and fairness to those who do the right thing on benefits," he said. "The policy is unchanged. The £26,000 benefits cap remains." Read more on the Independent website.