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The #BenefitCap was first announced #OnThisDay in 2010 by George Osborne at the Conservative party conf. It came in in 2013. It breaks the vital link between the support you need & the support you get from our social security system & pushes kids into poverty [thread] 1/17
Originally the #BenefitCap was based on the premise that non-working households shouldn’t receive more than the average earnings of working households. But this compares incomes with earnings. A working family on £26k could also receive a range of benefits and tax credits. 2/17
The #BenefitCap was then lowered in 2016 and is set at a completely arbitrary level. And this was just as the cost of living was starting to rise. 3/17
One of the stated aims of the #BenefitCap is to incentivise people to move into work. But very many people affected by the cap are not expected to work because of disability or ill-health, or because they have very young children. 4/17
Leading judges have said that the #BenefitCap breaches the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that "it cannot possibly be in the best interests of the children affected by the cap... 5/17
"...to deprive them of the means to provide them with adequate food, clothing, warmth and housing, the basic necessities of life." 6/17
Our research (pre-COVID) showed that most children in families affected by the #BenefitCap were living so far below the poverty line that even lifting the cap would not be sufficient for them to escape poverty. It pushes kids already living in poverty into deeper poverty. 7/17
There is now government data that shows that 154,000 households had their benefits capped in May 2020, which is twice as many as in February 2020. The average amount that households are capped rose from £51 a week in February 2020 to £57 a week in May. 8/17
. @ruthpatrick0 @aaronsreeves and @kittyjstewart argued in May that ‘If there was ever a time to remove the #BenefitCap, it would be now. Continuing with it is both unfair and incoherent.” https://cpag.org.uk/news-blogs/news-listings/has-government-forgotten-children-during-covid-19/ 9/17
The welcome increase to #UniversalCredit in March means families previously close to the level of being capped are now capped. These families miss out on this extra, much-needed support, even though they face the same financial pressures as other people on UC. 10/17
Families who were previously claiming benefits but were working a sufficient number of hours to escape the #BenefitCap may find themselves newly capped if they have lost a job or their hours have dropped in the pandemic. 11/17
Some of these workers will be protected by a ‘grace period’ for nine months if they are newly unemployed, but this relies on a consistent work history over the past year. Some families claiming benefits for the first time will have been hit by the cap too. 12/17
We have heard from frontline advisers about some families affected by the #BenefitCap: a single mum with twins was working over 16 hours per week when her twins went to school, but now furloughed with lower earnings they are affected by the cap. https://cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/policypost/CPAG-mind-the-gaps-briefing-14-May.pdf 13/17
One mother left her husband as he was abusive. She has been furloughed from her job and her earnings are now below the threshold to exempt her from the #BenefitCap. She is now in severe financial distress due to the cap https://cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/policypost/CPAG-mind-the-gaps-briefing-6%20August.pdf 14/17
We spoke to mum Anna: “I’m worried sick about money... I can’t get off the #BenefitCap, because I can’t find a job, I can’t work with the children at the moment, and I can’t move into cheaper accommodation because there isn’t any available.” https://cpag.org.uk/news-blogs/news-listings/cost-learning-lockdown-anna%E2%80%99s-story 15/17
But the #BenefitCap is a problem regardless of #COVID19. Read about David’s experiences: https://cpag.org.uk/news-blogs/news-listings/we-honestly-didn%E2%80%99t-know-how-survive 16/17
The benefit cap is causing extreme hardship. It should be lifted now to ensure families and children can thrive. [ENDS] 17/17
