Benefits capped for 33,000 households

Almost 33,000 households had their benefits capped by November 2013, new figures reveal.
 
Capping benefits so that households can no longer get more in benefits than the average family earns is a key part of the government’s long-term economic plan to make sure we deliver for hardworking people and fix the broken welfare system.
 
Statistics released today also show that in November:

Almost 150 households were capped by at least £350 a week

Over 1,000 single people without children were capped

The top 10 areas had capped over 500 households each and over 9,000 households in total since April 2013

In November 2013, over 27,000 households had their benefits capped and since April 2013, almost 33,000 households have been capped overall
 
Minister for Welfare Reform, Lord Freud, said:

These figures show that the benefit cap is returning fairness to the system by ensuring that families on benefits can no longer get more money than the average family earns.
 
It is not right that some families on benefits were receiving amounts of money that hardworking taxpayers could only dream of and our welfare reforms are working to fix the system.
 
By exempting people who are receiving Working Tax Credit, the benefit cap is increasing incentives to move into work and we already know that around 19,000 claimants potentially affected by the benefit cap have found jobs.
 
These new figures give a fuller picture of the number of households affected by the policy following the successful national implementation of the benefit cap in Autumn 2013. Local authorities continued to cap claimants after the rollout drawing on new data which highlighted other households whose benefit income rose above average household earnings.
 
The benefit cap limits welfare hand-outs to £500 a week for couples, with or without children, and lone parent households, and at £350 a week for households of a single adult with no children.