MSE News: Benefits cap comes into force

Former_MSE_Helen

"A cap limiting the amount of benefits households can receive each week, has come into force today in parts of the UK..."

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Benefits cap comes into force



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Pincher

So couples have to get divorced, and split the children to form two households.

£350 x 2 = £700 a week as separate people.

£700 - £500 = £200 a week better off.

delain

I thought DT was the place to discuss benefit policy? Breaking your own rules there MSE!

jacques_chirac

Pincher wrote: »

So couples have to get divorced, and split the children to form two households.

£350 x 2 = £700 a week as separate people.

£700 - £500 = £200 a week better off.

Running two households costs far more than one. Rent alone will eat up the additional £200.

rogerblack

To clarify

However, you're unaffected if you're any of the following:

• Eligible for one of the excluded disability benefits.
• getting working tax credit

People who are on ESA - but not in the support group - are affected, if they do not also receive DLA/PIP.
So, if you are on ESA, in the work-related group, and you may be affected, but have not tried to claim PIP - consider it.

Plus - you just have to be entitled to working tax credit to be exempt - not to claim it.
FAQ from the DWP on the cap is here:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/benefit-cap-faqs.pdf


More information about PIP - https://www.gov.uk/pip/overview


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3783983/Benefit%20Limits%20and%20Housing%20Affordability%20for%20Private%20Tenants.pdf is a detailed paper, going into the effects per area.

The DWP estimate that 54% of the 56,000 affected households in the HB related cap will be private
tenants.
They also estimate that 34% of households affected receive jobseekers allowance,
25% of households are in receipt of ESAand 39% of households are in receipt of Income Support

This cap bites only really on areas with high housing cost.
The 'headline grabbing' propaganda about people with large numbers of children is basically that. Few people are affected solely due to that.
Though in high housing cost areas of the country, even people with one child can be affected.

jobdone1

The point is if a living wage was enforced and not the min wage then you would not need benefit top ups. And as for people getting employment it is not that easy. Letting big organisations to cream millions in profits and not pay more the the min wage puts a strain on the public purse.

jacques_chirac

jobdone1 wrote: »

The point is if a living wage was enforced and not the min wage then you would not need benefit top ups. And as for people getting employment it is not that easy. Letting big organisations to cream millions in profits and not pay more the the min wage puts a strain on the public purse.

If a living wage was enforced it would have an inflationary effect, leading to a rise in the living wage, and so on - it is vicious circle, it solves nothing.

jobdone1

jacques_chirac wrote: »

If a living wage was enforced it would have an inflationary effect, leading to a rise in the living wage, and so on - it is vicious circle, it solves nothing.

Inflation. Ah yes that little joke. Based on buying cameras and things that are mainly not bought on a daily basis. Look at air fares that had an effect on inflation most min wage working people unable to travel by car to work let alone go on holiday. An extra couple of pounds an hour makes very little difference to inflation in my view but makes a huge difference to the working class.:beer:

satan666wayne

Are they taking the P? I work 40 hours a week and get £250 and pay tax and insurance on that.
Ps. If I put how I really feel I will get a ban from the site.

[Deleted User]

delain wrote: »

I thought DT was the place to discuss benefit policy? Breaking your own rules there MSE!

as they often do:eek:

poppy10_2

delain wrote: »

I thought DT was the place to discuss benefit policy? Breaking your own rules there MSE!

The DT forum is hidden to non-logged in users. So if they put this discussion in there then anyone who clicked the link from the newsletter would just hit a login screen.

There are many more people subscribed to the MSE newsletter than are registered in the forums. All links from MSE news always go to one of the publicly accessible subforums which can be browsed without logging in, even if they wouldn't normally belong there