Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate how many jobseeker's allowance claimants who fulfil all the work-search requirements as set out in the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and have never been subject to sanctions have been affected by the benefit cap since April 2013.

Official statistics on the composition of benefits claimed by households subject to the benefit cap are not available.

A suite of evaluation was published on 15 December 2014. This evaluation made estimates of the proportion of capped households in scope for the cap who were in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Income Support (IS), Employment Support Allowance (ESA) or other benefit types over time. The evaluation uses a different methodology to the Official Statistics and does not provide a cumulative count of numbers which is in line with Official Statistics. In July 2014 (the most recent data used in the evaluation), estimates found 23 per cent of capped claimants were in receipt of ESA; 45 per cent of capped claimants were in receipt of IS; and 9 per cent were in receipt of another benefit type.

Further information can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-cap-evaluation

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-cap-review-of-the-first-year