New figures show that around 54,000 households are no longer
subject to the benefit cap, indicating that welfare reforms are
working and more people are entering employment or have taken on
more hours.
70% (140,000) of households on Housing Benefit were no longer
capped in August 2018. This is an increase of 8,300 on the
previous quarter (May 2018).
The benefit cap incentivises work, including part-time work, as
claimants become exempt from the cap once they are in a job and
are earning over a certain amount.
These figures come a day after Office for National Statistics
(ONS) figures
confirmed the number of children living in long-term workless
households is down 580,000 since 2010, falling to its lowest
level in more than a decade.
Work remains the best route out of poverty, with around 75% of
children in poverty leaving poverty altogether when their parents
move into full employment. Children living with a working adult
do better in school, have better educational attainment and are
more likely to be in work as adults.
Since the introduction of the benefit cap in April 2013, 205,000
households have had their benefits capped. Around 147,000 of
these are no longer capped, and 54,000 households became exempt
from the cap due to work.
The statistics also include the number of households on Universal
Credit that have previously been subject to the cap, with 1,800
of these previously capped claimants exempt from the cap due to
work.
The government has recently announced that it is spending an
additional £1.7 billion a year on Universal Credit, increasing by
£1,000 each the amount that 2.4 million households can earn each
year before their Universal Credit begins to be withdrawn.
Work and Pensions Secretary , said:
Our welfare reforms are supporting more and more people into
work – in fact since 2010 we have seen an average of 1,000 more
people moving into employment each and every day.
Under the old system, over 1 million people spent most of a
decade trapped on benefits. In stark comparison we now have
seen record levels of employment.
And the benefit cap ensures we have a fairer system – fair for
the taxpayer and fair for claimants – as well as a system that
incentivises work. So it’s not surprising that we now have the
lowest unemployment figures since 1975.
And with the latest budget announcements for Universal Credit,
we will help even more families as we increase the amount
people can earn by £1,000 before their benefit payment begins
to be reduced – making sure it pays to work and it’s a smooth
transition into work.
More about these statistics
Under the benefit cap, anyone eligible who moves into work and
then earns enough for Working Tax Credit (or the equivalent under
Universal Credit) becomes exempt.
The estimate of the number of children in households that were
capped but went into work is for households that had their
Housing Benefit capped only. It is calculated by multiplying the
number of children in these households by the number of
households, which is available on Stat-Xplore. Households with
more than 5 children are grouped together, so for this
calculation we have assumed that there are 6 children in these
households.
