Asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett To ask Her Majesty’s
Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the
benefit cap on child and family wellbeing since that cap was
lowered in 2016-17. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,
Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Buscombe) (Con) My
Lords, since 2013, the benefit cap has...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have
made of the impact of the benefit cap on child and family
wellbeing since that cap was lowered in 2016-17.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Work and Pensions (Baroness Buscombe) (Con)
My Lords, since 2013, the benefit cap has provided a strong
financial incentive for those who can work to come off
welfare and so improve their child and family well-being.
While 134,000 households had their benefits capped, figures
for February 2018 show that around half are no longer
capped because they are working at least part time, and so
qualify for their full benefit entitlement and therefore a
considerable boost in income and well-being.
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(Lab)
My Lords, a new study by Policy and Practice, which was
founded by one of universal credit’s architects,
highlighted the human costs of the cap, arguing that it
should be applied only to those who are actively required
to seek work. Can the Minister explain what purpose is
achieved by imposing this measure, which is designed to get
people into paid work, on lone parents of infants, who are
not required to seek paid work because of their caring
responsibilities, thereby causing, in the words of a High
Court judge,
“real misery … to no good purpose”?
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My Lords, I beg to differ from the noble Baroness. I would
call it not “imposing” but “empowering”. Our research shows
that the best way to lift children out of poverty is by
supporting parents into work. Record numbers of lone
parents are now working: 1.2 million, with 1 million fewer
people living in absolute poverty compared to 2010,
including 300,000 children. We know that 75% of children in
poverty leave poverty altogether when their parents move
into full employment. We have doubled free childcare to 30
hours a week for nearly 400,000 working parents of three
and four year-olds, and a parent need work only one hour a
month to be eligible for childcare costs.
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The (CB)
My Lords, the noble Baroness has not responded to the
question from the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, who was
referring particularly to mothers of infants. There is no
special nursery care for those, and mothers should be with
their infants in the early stages.
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I respond to the noble Countess by saying that many women,
however young their children are, want to work. We are
encouraging jobcentre staff to help people to find work
that fits around their caring responsibilities. We are also
giving those people extra discretionary housing payments. I
add that those who are not working at all are still in
receipt of what amounts to a gross salary outside London of
£23,000 a year and in London £29,000 a year.
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(LD)
My Lords, does the Minister accept that many local
authorities are now having to pick up the pieces of this
policy, particularly in high rent areas, where two and
three-child families are now being hit? Discretionary
housing payments are supposed to be only a temporary
sticking plaster, not the complete answer.
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My Lords, we welcomed recent external research on the
benefit cap, working with local authorities. We are finding
that there is a positive employment impact from the lower
benefit cap, even at such an early stage in a child’s life.
This supports our evidence that the cap is increasing work
incentives for previously workless households.
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The Lord Bishop of Portsmouth
My Lords, welfare reform was predicated on the principal
that work should pay, but that principal is being
undermined, not least by the two-child limit. In future, a
family with three or more children seeking to avoid the cap
by moving into work will find themselves subject to the
two-child limit instead. They could end up losing out by
going to work. What assessment have the Government made of
the impact of this perverse incentive?
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My Lords, I would not call it a perverse incentive. Our
reforms of support for children make sure that people on
benefits and those supporting themselves solely through work
have the same choices, including whether or not they can
afford to have another child. Our policy is about fairness
and incentivising work. Of course, child tax credits were not
available before 2003, and, no matter how many children
someone might have, they continue to be paid child benefit
for each and every child.
We welcome last week’s decision by the High Court in relation
to kinship carers. We have considered that part of the
judgment, which I referred to during a Question last week,
pertaining to non-parental carers, alongside internal reviews
that the Department for Work and Pensions carried out in
parallel to the legal case. We are pleased to announce that
it is right that this change should be extended, not just to
those in non-parental caring arrangements but also to include
children who are adopted who would otherwise be in local
authority care. We can respond positively to all noble Lords
who have been pressing us on this point.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that and I
commend the Government for having made the right decision,
but will she think about what the next stage is? My
honourable friend has raised the case of a
constituent who had two dependent children in her care and
was then asked by social services to take in two of her
grandchildren. As a result, the household was hit by the
benefit cap. Will the Minister think about that for a moment?
There is not much point in exempting kinship carers from the
two-child policy if, in practice, they cannot claim those
benefits because the benefit cap then kicks in. Might the
Government either review who is affected by the benefit cap
or, at the very least, consider exempting the benefits given
on behalf of the children that a kinship carer has taken in
when the benefit cap is considered?
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My Lords, I cannot assure the noble Baroness that we will
consider this any further. It is right that I articulate the
fact that we are already spending £95 billion a year on
benefits for people of working age. We have a budget in our
department of £200 billion, which is 25% of the whole of the
budget for government. We have to think about affordability
before we can continue to extend our policies,
notwithstanding that each and every individual case is of
great importance to us. Our concern is to ensure that we help
those who are genuinely in need.
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(Lab)
My Lords, is it not the case that children come out of
poverty only if the two parents get excellent, well-paid
jobs, and the vast majority in this category do not do that?
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My Lords, perhaps I can also explain that, not only is
universal credit giving so much further support and really
making work transform lives that, in a family with three
children, for example, the couple need only work up to 24
hours in total a week to be exempt from the cap. So the cap
comes off and they receive benefits to the equivalent of a
salary of £35,000 gross a year, and that does not include
housing benefit. Noble Lords should accept that such a salary
compares extremely favourably with the income of the many
thousands of families who do not call upon the welfare
system.
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