#ToryBenefitCap Archives - #StopTheTories Channel

‘Two-child policy’ cuts benefits of more than 70,000 families

28 June 2018 #StopTheTories Channel Monitoring

From The Guardian: More than 70,000 low-income families lost at least £2,800 each last year after having their entitlement to benefits taken away as a result of the Tory government’s “two-child policy”, official figures show.

The statistics reveal that during the first year of operation, 59% of the 73,500 families who lost financial support for a third child were in work. Nine per cent of UK claimant households with three or more children were affected.

Campaigners said the number of families affected by the policy would drive up UK poverty levels, putting an estimated 200,000 children into hardship.

The policy means households claiming child tax credit or universal credit, who have a third or subsequent child born after 6 April 2017, are unable to claim a child element worth £2,780 a year for these children.

A mother given 50p a week for housing: the benefit cap one year on

15 November 2017 #StopTheTories Channel Monitoring

The head of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing writes in the Guardian: “A year on from the introduction of the lower benefit cap, its abiding legacy is to push people closer to homelessness.

“The cap, introduced on 7 November 2016, reduced the total amount any family can receive in benefits from £26,000 to £23,000 in London and £20,000 outside the capital, leaving families with significant shortfalls between the benefits they get and the cost of their housing.

“In our most recent research we spoke to 18 families with capped benefit across the UK and each time we heard a familiar story – one of stress, struggle and a daily fight to remain in their home.

“Half of those families said they had gone without food, fuel or were otherwise in debt as a result of the cut. Among a raft of other hardships a third said they had been forced to use food banks.”