Benefit Cap Affects Nearly 33,000 British Households

Nearly 33,000 households have had their benefit capped in the first seven months of the policy. The DWP has published details showing the impact of the £26,000-a-year total household benefits cap. The DWP statistics show 32,940 had their benefits reduced at some point between 15 April and 21 November. A total of 27,352 households were affected by the cap in November. The vast majority of these, 95 per cent, were households with children, with 22,357, 82 per cent, having three children or more. More than half of the affected households, 16,174, were single parents. Download the statistics from the DWP website.

The OBC Will Directly Create MORE £100kpa HB Families

Following David Cameron’s claim that some Housing Benefit claimants get £100,000 per year in HB, a freedom of information request revealed that at most 5 families got this amount in 2010.  But it set me thinking.  The Overall Benefit Cap (OBC) has a fundamental and a systemic flaw.  The systemic flaw is that as rents rise faster than the cap or welfare benefits then more and more families will get caught by the cap each year.  Yet here the obvious is the fundamental flaw – that the OBC penalises large families….and especially the real large families.  This became obvious when I read about a family with 11 children.  A family with 11 children is unusual and as a quick approximation such a family will lose about £340pw in welfare benefits and not get a penny in HB or LHA towards rent.  They will be evicted and become homeless and need temporary accommodation (TA).  That TA cost will be over £2k per week or £100k per annum and have to be met by the public purse.  The same situation applies to all 2 parent families with 6 or more children – they will get their welfare benefits reduced and receive not a penny in HB or LHA towards rent. And that applies whether they live in social housing or rent privately.  Read more on the speye blog.