Alert Briefing: New benefit cap statistics show numbers rising

On Thursday 26 November, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released their new benefit cap statistics. We have analysed these numbers to show how the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a huge rise in benefit capped households; with the figures showing us that there has been an increase of 116% since February.

The amount of money households that are benefit capped lose each week is £57 on average. This is the same amount of money an average family spends on food and non-alcoholic drink every week, which demonstrates how damaging the benefit cap can be for families. 

An urgent suspension of the benefit cap is required.