Scrapping the benefit cap is TWICE as popular as axing the cap on bankers’ bonuses, a poll has found.
Liz Truss has drawn up plans to remove the cap during a cost-of-living crisis in this Friday’s mini-Budget. But so far there is no plan to remove the £20,000 cap on annual benefits per household (£23k in London) - or even raise it in line with inflation.
The value of the cap has been frozen for six years, despite rising prices. Critics say that has caused social cleansing as rising rents price poor families out of inner cities.
A Survation survey of 1,189 adults, for the Child Poverty Action Group, found 52% want the benefit cap scrapped - but only 27% want the bankers’ bonus cap to go.
Half of those who voted Tory in 2019 want the benefit cap abolished, the poll found.
CPAG warned last week of a “growing gulf” between the cap, benefit rates and the cost of living.
It said axing the cap would give an average £65 a week extra to those hit from April, when benefits are expected to rise around 10%.
If the cap does not change, more than 100,000 households will not get an extra penny from the long-awaited uprating in April.
DWP statistics today showed 69% of all those hit by the cap are single parents.
CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said: “The benefit cap is leaving the poorest families with less and less while bankers look to be in line for more and more.
“Capped families face a terrifying chasm between their income and rising costs, forced to live with a permanently empty wallet.
“With 330,000 children paying the price, it’s no surprise our polling shows the majority of people think the cap should be scrapped.”
Former Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey had repeatedly refused to scrap the benefit cap.
She said the cap might be reviewed next April, but did not promise to do so. She is now deputy PM and has been replaced by Chloe Smith.
Tory ministers claimed the policy would push families on benefits into work or a smaller flat.
The DWP said the cap provides a strong work incentive and and is fair to taxpayers. But two fifths of Universal Credit claimants are in work.
The department also referred to the Government's £37 billion support package to help the public through the cost-of-living crisis, and the new cap on average energy bills this winter.
Liz Truss defended drawing up plans to scrap the bankers’ bonus cap. She told the BBC in New York: “What I want to see is a growing economy.”
She added: “If that means if that means taking difficult decisions, which are going to help Britain become more competitive, help Britain become more attractive, help more investment flow into our country, yes, I'm absolutely prepared to take those decisions.
“Because what I care about is I care about our country being successful, and everyone in our country, wherever they live, wherever they're from, having those opportunities.”
