George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer) has announced that the coalition will be introducing a maximum threshold on the amount of benefits that a single family can claim.
Speaking at the Conservative Party conference Mr Osborne said that the benefits limit would be set at the amount that “the average family gets for going out to work”, which is approximately £26,000 a year.
Under these new plans local authorities will be asked to assess the total benefit income from 2013 of all the new and existing housing benefit claimants, reducing the benefit if necessary and ensuring that it remains within the limit.
The proposed cap on benefits will apply to the total received from jobseekers’ allowance, employment support allowance, income support, housing benefit, council tax benefit, child benefit, child tax credit, carer’s allowance and industrial injuries disablement benefit. The cap will not apply to households with a disability living allowance claimant or war widows.
Around 50,000 households are expected to be affected by the benefits limit, which is scheduled to come into force in 2013.
