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CIH: lower benefit cap causes hardship and should be scrapped
The lower benefit cap is putting people at serious risk of homelessness and should be scrapped, the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has said.
The CIH is calling for the benefit cap to be dropped in the upcoming Budget as government figures published today reveal that more than 68,000 families were capped at August, with nearly a third losing between £50 and £100 a week.
The figures show that 71% of the capped households are single-parent families and 77% of these families have a child under five.
The CIH interviewed 18 families who are losing out by as much as £170 a week and some only receive 50p of housing benefit a week.
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Half of the families interviewed said they had gone without food or fuel or were in debt as a result of the benefit cap. A third said they had been forced to use food banks.
Some families hit by the cap said they received no warning from their housing association or council landlord, or the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), before they had their weekly benefits docked.
The lower cap has reduced the amount a family can receive in benefits from £26,000 to £23,000 a year in London and £20,000 outside of the capital.
The CIH had previously predicted that 116,000 families would be hit by the lower benefit cap and affect 319,000 children.
Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the CIH, said: “One year after the introduction of the lower benefit cap, its worrying effects are very much apparent.
“As a result of this policy, thousands of families face a daily struggle to live – in some cases being forced to go without food or heating so that they can pay for their housing, in many others being forced into arrears and put at risk of homelessness.
“It is particularly worrying that nearly a third of the families affected are losing between £50 and £100 a week – this is a huge amount of money if you are already struggling.
“The government says the aim of the cap is to get people into work, but many of the families who have been capped receive benefits which recognise they are not able to work and the concern is that many more families could be a redundancy or period of ill health away from being in this situation.
“The government has made a number of commitments in recent weeks to build new homes and take other crucial steps to solve our housing crisis, but this is an example of a welfare policy which seriously undermines that commitment because it makes housing virtually unaffordable to a significant number of people. The government should use the Budget to scrap the lower benefit cap.”
A spokesperson for the DWP said: “The benefit cap restores fairness to the system – even with the new cap, households across the UK can still receive the equivalent of a pre-tax salary of £25,000 or £29,000 in London. Anyone eligible for working tax credits, carers allowance, and most disability benefits are exempt from the cap.”
The spokesperson added that the number of households coming off the benefit cap and going into work has reached 39,000, up 5,000 on the last quarter.
