Social Security Benefits

Department for Work and Pensions written question – answered am ar 26 Mawrth 2024.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Kenny MacAskill Kenny MacAskill Alba, East Lothian

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the total revenue accrued by the Exchequer since the introduction of the benefit cap; and how many and what proportion of households are impacted in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) each parliamentary constituency in the latest period for which data is available.

Photo of Jo Churchill Jo Churchill The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

Since the introduction of the benefit cap in April 2013 to November 2023 (the latest data available) an estimated £2.2 billion has been accrued in Housing Benefit (HB) and Universal Credit (UC) expenditure in Great Britain due to the benefit cap.

Official statistics on the number and proportion of working-age households in receipt of UC and HB who are capped up to November 2023 are available on Stat-Xplore for the requested geographies. Official Statistics on the total number of households in Great Britain on HB or UC for the same geographies are also available on Stat-Xplore up to November 2023. You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Benefit cap statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Department for Communities.

Notes:

Source: Benefit Cap Official Statistics up to Nov-23 published in Mar-24

  • Total savings are rounded to the nearest £100m
  • UC data is only available from October 2016 and for UC Full Service cases only
  • Figures do not include households capped in UC Live Service and so this figure will represent a small undercount of the total savings

Does this answer the above question?

Yes1 person thinks so

No1 person thinks not

Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.