Today, the Department for Work and Pensions has released the
latest experimental statistics on how many
households have had their benefits capped between April 2013 and
February 2021. The key findings from the release are:
- 200,000 households had their benefit capped at February 2021,
compared to 79,000 at February 2020 - a 153% rise.
- It represents a 13% increase in newly capped households on
the last quarter.
- Some people receive a nine-month grace period which protects
them from being hit by the cap after losing their job. For people
who lost their jobs at the beginning of the pandemic, this
quarter’s data reflects the first time that they have been hit by
the benefit cap.
- Households had their benefits capped by an average of £55 a
week, at February 2021. That works out at £238.15 a month.
Commenting on the statistics Jon Sparkes, chief executive
of Crisis, said: “Behind these figures are hundreds of
thousands of people battling to keep roofs over their heads. Many
will have lost jobs in the pandemic or are living day-to-day on
insecure, zero-hour contracts.
“For so many, renting has become unaffordable. Rents continue to
rise but Local Housing Allowance is frozen, creating a real-terms
cut to housing benefit.
“We desperately need a strategy to provide the genuinely
affordable homes needed to end homelessness, as well as more
financial support for the hundreds of thousands of renters in
arrears, to help them back from the brink.
“The UK government must also make people who are rough sleeping
or stuck in temporary accommodation permanently exempt from the
benefit cap, to give them a chance to end their homelessness for
good.”
