Benefit Cap: Child and Family Well-being Debate

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Department: Department for Work and Pensions

Benefit Cap: Child and Family Well-being

Lord Bishop of Portsmouth Excerpts
Monday 30th April 2018

(5 years, 11 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Buscombe Portrait Baroness Buscombe
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My Lords, we welcomed recent external research on the benefit cap, working with local authorities. We are finding that there is a positive employment impact from the lower benefit cap, even at such an early stage in a child’s life. This supports our evidence that the cap is increasing work incentives for previously workless households.

Lord Bishop of Portsmouth Portrait The Lord Bishop of Portsmouth
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My Lords, welfare reform was predicated on the principal that work should pay, but that principal is being undermined, not least by the two-child limit. In future, a family with three or more children seeking to avoid the cap by moving into work will find themselves subject to the two-child limit instead. They could end up losing out by going to work. What assessment have the Government made of the impact of this perverse incentive?