Committee considers concerns that benefit cap "side effects" risk undermining its aims

30 October 2018

“People can escape the benefit cap if they move into work. Where that is not a realistic possibility, we must ask whether the cap should operate” says Committee Chair Frank Field MP

The Committee will hear from charities supporting benefit claimants, and local councils, about the impact of the Benefit cap.

Can claimants manage their budgets under the cap without falling back on charities and other services?

When they can't, how are local authorities dealing with rent arrears? How many people can actually find and move to cheaper homes?

How much money is the Government really saving if other services are picking up these costs? Is there a risk, as the NAO has suggested, that the stress of debt and hardship are themselves reducing people's capacity to work - possibly even pushing them towards other, incapacity benefits?

The Committee is considering concerns that the “side effects” of the benefit cap risk undermining its twin aims of saving public money and moving people into work.

Witnesses

From 09.30am in the Wilson Room, Wednesday 31 October 2018

Laura Dewar, Gingerbread, www.gingerbreak.org.uk, the "charity for single-parent families"
Josephine Tucker, Child Poverty Action Group — www.cpag.org.uk
Rob Gowans, Citizens Advice Scotland — www.cas.org.uk
Marc Francis, Zacchaeus 2000 Trust www.z2k.org — for "A London free from poverty"

From 10.15am:

Clair Horton, Service Improvement Lead—Active Inclusion, Newcastle City Council
Mark Fowler, Director of Community Solutions at the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, also representing London Councils
Graham Bourne, Head of Revenue and Benefits, Brighton & Hove City Council

Further information

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