The Conservative Party has announced plans to reform the household benefit cap, because apparently the current system is allowing people to get away with that most heinous of crimes: receiving enough money to survive.
The cap, introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2013, limits the total amount of benefits most working-age people can receive. Currently, exemptions exist for those on Personal Independence Payment (Pip) and for households on universal credit earning £881 or more a month. But the Tories say that if they win power, they would only exempt households if all adults who can work actually do so, and receiving Pip would no longer be an automatic get-out-of-cap-free card.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the plans would 'stop those who abuse the system getting almost unlimited welfare payments.' Because, as we all know, 111,000 households currently affected by the cap are clearly having a blast on their capped benefits, while the 2.3 million households claiming above the cap due to exemptions are presumably living like royalty.
Under the new proposals, where a couple can both work, they would both have to work at least 16 hours a week to be exempt. Where only one person can work, they'd need to work 16 hours a week - the same as now. The current system allows a household to be uncapped if one member receives an exempting benefit like Pip or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The Tories want to change this so that only the exempting benefit itself gets a top-up, rather than lifting the cap for the entire household.
The party estimates this will deliver at least £1bn of savings annually, which is nice, but critics argue that limiting benefits for part-time, low-income, or out-of-work households just traps families in poverty. The cap level varies depending on location and household composition - for example, a couple outside London is capped at £1,835 per month.
This is part of a broader £23bn welfare savings package that includes restricting benefits to UK citizens and ending sickness benefits for less serious mental health conditions. The Tories have also promised to reinstate the two-child benefit cap, which the current government scrapped in April, a move the government says will lift 450,000 children out of poverty.
The Liberal Democrats, Greens, SNP, and Plaid Cymru have all called for the household benefit cap to be scrapped entirely. Reform UK, meanwhile, wants to cut the welfare bill by billions, including by stopping people with 'less serious' mental health conditions from claiming disability benefits and reintroducing the two-child cap. So many choices, so little actual help.