THE number of families who have seen their benefits capped has increased in every part of Wales since the start of the pandemic, new figures show.

With a record number of families affected across Great Britain, the UK Government – which is responsible for the welfare system – is facing calls to abolish the cap from MPs and charities who say the policy is an "unjust punishment" on poorer households.

The benefit cap limits the total income a household can receive from certain benefits, and currently kicks in at £20,000 per year for families with children outside of London, and £23,000 for those in the capital.

The limits are lower for single adults and lone parents whose children do not live with them. Money is taken away by reducing either their housing benefit or Universal Credit payments – although there is an initial nine-month grace period during which benefits will not be capped.

Welsh MP Beth Winter told The National the benefit cap was "directly forcing families to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children, leaving them no choice but to go to food banks".

"To calculate how much people need to get by, and then force them to live on less than that is inhumane," she added.

Department for Work and Pensions figures show that 5,995 families had their benefits capped in Wales during February, the most recent month on record.

This was significantly more than the number capped in the same month last year, when 3,304 had either their housing benefit or Universal Credit payment reduced.

The biggest increases in benefit caps were in Monmouthshire, Cardiff, Rhondda Cynon Taf, the Vale of Glamorgan and Blaenau Gwent, where the number of families affected more than doubled compared to last February.

The DWP said the record number in February had been driven by a rise in Universal Credit claimants due to job losses linked to the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

According to Child Poverty Action Group, which wants the cap abolished, households impacted are losing out on an average £62 a week.

The charity said families were finding it hard to escape the cap due to a continued lack of jobs and unaffordable childcare.

Chief executive Alison Garnham said: "The benefit cap has always been an unjust punishment for families."

She added: "Thousands more households who have lost jobs to Covid-19 are now subject to the cap even though in the pandemic it is much harder to find ways to replace their lost earnings and become exempt.

"Especially in areas with high rents, capped families are losing large amounts of social security support and that is disastrous for the children concerned."

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Meanwhile, homeless charity Shelter said a government failure to review the cap had plunged many families into poverty and put them at risk of homelessness.

Chief executive Polly Neate said: "The cap means people whose incomes have been decimated by the pandemic cannot access enough financial support to cover their basic costs, like rent or food for their family."

The DWP said a review of the benefit cap will be carried out at "the appropriate time".

A spokesperson said: "The benefit cap ensures fairness for hard-working taxpaying households and a strong work incentive, while also providing a much-needed safety net of support."

Cynon Valley MP Winter said the government could tackle wider social issues like food poverty by lifting the benefit cap.

"Food insecurity disproportionately affects families who are also most affected by the cap," she told the House of Commons. "The Child Poverty Action Group found that lifting the cap could take 150,000 children out of poverty."

And another MP, Karen Buck, said the cap had been described as "ghastly" by a former Conservative work and pensions minister.

"Efforts to protect incomes during [the pandemic] have been undermined as increased universal credit and housing allowance rates led to more families being capped, with numbers rising as the grace period for Universal Credit expires," Buck told the Commons. "If the supposed aim of the benefit cap is for families to go into work and to cut their housing costs by moving, will the minister explain how families have been supposed to do that in the past 12 months, when neither option was effectively possible?"

In response, employment minister Mims Davies said benefits claimants could approach their council for discretionary housing payments or hardship grants if they needed additional support to meet rental costs.

"Even in these current times, people moving out of the benefit cap and into work is going in the right direction," Davies said. "There are multiple vacancies in the hospitality, construction, care and logistics sectors.

"The benefits system provides a crucial safety net for people at their time of need and the benefit cap also provides a strong incentive for claimants to get into work and increase their hours so that the benefit cap does not apply."

But Winter told The National it is time the cap was scrapped.

"The pandemic has seen the number of capped households increase drastically, at a time when moving to cheaper accommodation or finding a new job has been virtually impossible," she said.

"This ghastly government policy is inflicting misery on thousand of low-income families and driving people into a cycle of poverty and debt. It must be abolished."

  • This article originally appeared on our sister site The National.