Caring for children?

Study identifies more than 330,000 youngsters who will lose out in policy that will take £300m out of pockets of affected families in first full year in 2017/18, costing those who are hit an average of £63 per household each week. Single mothers will be hit hardest as a group by the cap – constituting 59% of those affected by the change. As many as 37% of those affected may be ethnic minority households – although the study says this cannot be precisely quantified.

Imran Hussain, director of policy at Child Poverty Action Group, said: “The government’s own analysis shows the majority of households affected by the benefit cap are lone-parent households and the main victims are children – they’re nearly seven times more likely to be hit by it than adults. Children are innocent. Why should they be deprived of the basic necessities of life because the government wants to send a message to adults? They haven’t done anything wrong and cannot do anything about their circumstances. It’s a cruel, costly and damaging policy.” 

Unemployed families will not be able to afford to live in large parts of England as the government’s benefit cap plans threaten at least 100,000 households with homelessness and poverty.