Cap on benefits saves the taxpayer millions

A CRACKDOWN on benefits has prevented 170 households receiving up to £68,000 a year from the taxpayer.

Figures released by ministers show that since a benefits cap was introduced in 2013 thousands of people who had been living off the state have been forced to get a job.

The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that 26,000 households that were jobless in 2013 have at least one adult in employment.

The figures show that 180 households had been receiving at least £57,000 a year in benefits. It is understood 170 of the households were on £68,000, costing the taxpayer more than £11million annually.

Despite the huge success in tackling the “something for nothing” scrounger culture, Labour has vowed to end the benefits cap.

Jeremy Corbyn has said he would abolish the cap and has instead proposed a “maximum wage” cap.

The cap was brought in by the former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith as part of a revolutionary package of reforms to encourage people to get a job instead of living off benefits.

It came with the creation of the living wage and Universal Credit to make welfare simpler.

Higher

Hailing the success of his predecessor, Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green said: “Since the benefit cap was introduced in 2013, people in tens of thousands of households have moved into work. The new lower cap continues to build on that success by incentivising work.”

The new benefit cap was first set at the average wage of £26,000 a year. It has since been reset at £20,000 a year outside London and £23,000 in Greater London to reflect higher rent costs.

For single people without children, the cap is £15,410 in Greater London and £13,400 elsewhere.

Anyone working and receiving Working Tax Credits is exempt from the cap, as are households in which someone receives Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, or the support component of Employment and Support Allowance.

The new figures reveal that an extra 20,000 households had their housing benefit capped in November last year – up by one per cent from 2015.

London has the highest number of households in which the benefit cap has been applied.