UK Government caps benefits for nearly 1,000 Scottish households

NEA RLY 1,000 households in Scotland have had their benefits capped to ensure they do not receive more than an average working home, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has announced.

Some 977 household welfare incomes were capped in Scotland between A pril and October.

Benef its have been capped at £26,000 a year for couples and single parents and £18,200 for single adults who do not care for children.

The cap for couples and single parents is equivalent to a £35,000 annual salary after tax).

Mr Duncan Smith said: “These figures highlight our commitment to support those who want to work hard and get on and to end benefit dependency.

“We had to f ix the broken welfare system.

“The benefit cap means claimants no longer receive more in benef its than hard-working households’ average earnings, and Universal Credit ensures being in work pays, making the welf are system fair for claimants and the taxpayer that funds it.”

A total of 28,500 UK households had their benef its capped by October 2013. A bout 3.5% of capped claimants were in Scotland, which is home to about 8% of the UK’s total population.

Nearly a fifth (187) of capped claimants were from Edinburgh, closely followed by Glasgow with 153, while Scotland’s third most populous area Fife had 73 capped claimants.

Dundee had 46 capped claimants, the same as South Lanarkshire which has twice Dundee’s population, while Clackmannanshire, has the same number of capped claimants as West Lothian (40), which has over three times Clackmannanshire’s population.

PA. Iain Duncan Smith.