The Poverty Alliance have today responded to new statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions, which show that between February 2020 and May 2020 there was a 93% increase in the number of households impacted by the benefit cap.
Peter Kelly, Director of the Poverty Alliance, said:
“Covid-19 has underlined how important our social security system is. But it has also shown how many gaps there are in our system of social protection. The benefit cap, in putting an arbitrary limit on household incomes, breaks the link between what people need and the support they receive. It is an unjust policy that disproportionately pulls lone parents – the majority of whom are women – and black and minority ethnic families into poverty.
That so many are now being caught in the cap simply cannot be right. At a time when families across the country are struggling to stay afloat, the benefit cap is locking them into poverty. It must be scrapped now.”
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