Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #BenefitCap
Most recents (5)
The #BenefitCap was first announced #OnThisDay in 2010 by George Osborne at the Conservative party conf. It came in in 2013. It breaks the vital link between the support you need & the support you get from our social security system & pushes kids into poverty [thread] 1/17
Originally the #BenefitCap was based on the premise that non-working households shouldn’t receive more than the average earnings of working households. But this compares incomes with earnings. A working family on £26k could also receive a range of benefits and tax credits. 2/17
The #BenefitCap was then lowered in 2016 and is set at a completely arbitrary level. And this was just as the cost of living was starting to rise. 3/17
Some stories from our latest report, out today, with @churchofengland. Some may sound familiar:
“I lost my job beginning of March and been unable to find a new job as my son’s nursery closed... I am in more debt and struggling to pay bills and feed my son and myself.”
“I lost my job beginning of March and been unable to find a new job as my son’s nursery closed... I am in more debt and struggling to pay bills and feed my son and myself.”
A Dad, Graham, described not being able to cheer his daughter up by giving her money:
“I’ll break down and cry some days, I’ll go to my bedroom and cry, because I can’t give her £20 to go and buy something.”
“I’ll break down and cry some days, I’ll go to my bedroom and cry, because I can’t give her £20 to go and buy something.”
“They can see there is no money... especially also for the 19-year-old, I don’t want her to know everything that’s happening because she gets very bad panic attacks and anxiety. I try to hide as much as I can from them, but yes, they know.”
Our latest Mind the Gaps briefing shines a light on the problems ill and disabled people are facing because they haven’t had a work capability assessment. Here are just three snapshots of how people’s lives have been affected in this way: 1/4
A man receiving chemotherapy treatment for cancer should have automatically got the limited capability for work-related activity element (which means additional money) in #UniversalCredit. But this has not happened, leaving him in financial hardship. 2/4
A woman with cancer is currently subject to the #BenefitCap. The cap shouldn't apply to people who qualify for the limited capability for work-related activity element, but she hasn’t been assessed to show she qualifies. Her and her partner are losing out on £1271.92 a month. 3/4
THERAD on the UN Special Rapporteur's statement on UK poverty. 'Key elements of the post-war Beveridge social contract are being overturned. In the process, some good outcomes have certainly been achieved, but great misery has also been inflicted unnecessarily ... (1/7)
'...especially on the working poor, on single mothers struggling against mighty odds, on people with disabilities who are already marginalized, and on millions of children.' Hard-hitting stuff from @Alston_UNSR
at the end of his investigation into the UK. (2/7)
at the end of his investigation into the UK. (2/7)
He notes that the #benefitcap, #twochildlimit and #bedroomtax have 'made it much harder for people to make ends meet' and is particularly critical of Chancellor's refusal to lift the benefits freeze while raising income tax thresholds that don't 'move the needle' on poverty (3/7)
.@josietucker on the #benefitcap at the @CommonsWorkPen - only 19% of people affected are claiming jobseeker's allowance. The rest aren't expected to work because of ill health, disability or caring responsibilities. It's therefore hard to see its logic as a work incentive
A new mother can be subject to the #benefitcap from the day their child is born. And there is no free childcare until your child is 2.
More people responded to the #benefitcap by cutting down on essential spending than they did by looking for work
