New #BenefitCap statistics out this morning - our statement: https://cpag.org.uk/news-blogs/news-listings/170000-households-hit-benefit-cap

Official figures out today show the number of households subject to the benefit cap has reached 170,000, an increase of 8% since May 2020. Most of the increase is in London. The cap limits the total amount of benefits low-earning or non-working households can receive.

Most of these households are capped as a result of Covid-19, either because:

1. their working hours have been cut or they have been furloughed on a percentage of their usual pay, so they cannot reach the £604.59 monthly earnings threshold to be exempt from the cap

2. they have lost their job

or 3. the increases in #UniversalCredit and LHA rates mean their benefit income now reaches or exceeds the cap limit. These people will not benefit from the full value of upratings.

CEO @alisongcpag: "The govt’s aim for the #BenefitCap was to should incentivise work. But if that was ever a sound rationale in a pandemic it has become obsolete. Families are being capped when the shrinking labour market leaves them little hope of finding extra hours or new jobs

"More than 1/2 families affected by the cap have a child aged five or under. They are losing crucial support just as we enter a recession. That isn’t right. At a minimum the cap should be suspended during the pandemic so the lowest income parents can meet their kids' basic needs”