𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch plans to tighten the household benefit cap to secure at least £1billion of welfare savings a year. Today, benefits are capped at £1,835 a month for couples or single parents who live with their children outside Greater London. However, there are a wide range of occasions when the cap does not apply – such as if you, your partner or a child living with you under 18 receives a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or a host of other benefits.

The Tories plan to “totally overhaul” exemptions so benefits “such as PIP will no longer be an automatic free pass out of the cap”. The party says that today the cap only impacts 111,000 households – with 2.3million households claiming benefits above the level. Mrs Badenoch’s Tories are adamant you “should not be able to earn more from benefits than work”.

Under her plans, families will only be exempt from the cap “if every adult in the household who could be working is in work”. When a couple can both work, each will have to “work at least 16 hours a week”. The Tories will also change the present rule which means that if one member of a household receives an “exempting benefit” such as PIP or the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) the “whole household’s benefits are uncapped”.

The party claims: “This has made these benefits a golden ticket in households where adults could work more – but don’t. We will change this so that if a member of a household receives one of these exempting benefits, the cap is no longer automatically lifted. This means that if adults in the household who could work, aren’t, we will still cap their overall benefits – with their exempting benefit alone given as a specific top up. The only way to avoid the cap will be for all adults who can work to be working.”

Mrs Badenoch said: “Welfare must always be there for those who need it most, but it should never discourage work or reward dependency. The Conservatives believe in fairness, and that means those on welfare should have to make the same choices about their family as those who are not.

“That is why we will reform the Household Benefit Cap and stop those who abuse the system getting almost unlimited welfare payments.”

Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride added: “Loopholes and exemptions mean millions are getting around the cap. That’s wrong and unfair.”

And Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately said: “If you can work, you should. No one should ask for taxpayer-funded benefits until they’ve done their level best to earn their own living.”

A source at the Labour-run Department for Work and Pensions said: “The Conservatives created the universal credit system – which has left too many people shamefully signed off and written off without support to get into work. We are fixing the system and investing £2.5billion in the Youth Guarantee to support young people into work, training and apprenticeships; rebalancing the incentives in the system and introducing a right to try work without triggering a reassessment.”