Government Benifit Cap

[TrixiBuG]

So what do you all think?

A cap on benefits is having a test drive in 4 areas of London with a look to roll it out through out the county at a later stage.

They are capping at £500 per week for families and single people will get a max of £350 per week link

It wont (or shouldn't) effect people who cant work

I think this is the best thing this government can do. It should never be a case that you are better off on benefits than working.

An example on the Newsbeat report was of a family of 8 (2 adults and 6 Children) and they stand to loose £400 per week on this cap. The fact that they were earning £900 per week is disgusting IMO

What say you GD?

 

[Mucky_Pup]

Good I say.

 

[Tefal]

500 a week is still about 250 more than i earn

 

[TrixiBuG]

500 a week is still about 250 more than i earn

Same here - it works out at £24k per year at £500 per week (I think)...still disgusting but a hell of a lot better to have the cap than not

Don't forget they don't have to pay tax on this money either...

 

[JonJ678]

Benefits should not be in excess of minimum wage. £350 a week is far over that.

On a related note - if someone on benefits can't afford housing, tough ****. Move to somewhere cheaper like everyone else has to.

 

[Mucky_Pup]

Seems a bit odd to trial it in London, where housing costs are sky high, doomed to fail?

 

[Tefal]

Seems a bit odd to trial it in London, where housing costs are sky high, doomed to fail?

or getting them to move out before the house prices n the lower cost areas rise as everyone is forced to move.

 

[inogen]

Seems a bit odd to trial it in London, where housing costs are sky high, doomed to fail?

I think that's the point. Not the doomed to fail bit, but the bit about housing costs being sky high.

The cynic in me thinks this is a policy designed to force the poor (remember a lot of people receiving benefits aren't jobless) to move out from London and shift them somewhere else.

 

[deadite66]

They should have put in rent caps too.

 

[kwerk]

Seems a bit odd to trial it in London, where housing costs are sky high, doomed to fail?

Why do you think housing IS so high?

 

[JonJ678]

The cynic in me thinks this is a policy designed to force the poor (remember a lot of people receiving benefits aren't jobless) to move out from London and shift them somewhere else.

And the cynic in me wishes this were true. Drive the poor people out of London and let the free market pick itself up. I'd rather have companies paying £20 an hour to get a cleaner (expensive, as no cleaners want to live in London if rent is beyond their means) than paying near minimum wage while housing benefit picks up the tab.

 

[Scam]

The cynic in me thinks this is a policy designed to force the poor (remember a lot of people receiving benefits aren't jobless) to move out from London and shift them somewhere else.

But most housing benefits go straight into a private landlord's pocket. Uncapped benefits have had a massive effect on the housing boom, people don't seem to realise this. It's a ludicrous situation where some benefit scroungers (I jest..) are whining about not being able to live in Kensington anymore. Er.. so what? Welcome to the real world..

Putting a cap on it might (might!) help drop house prices to their normal level. Now in London they just need to introduce a massive second/empty-home tax to stop the johnny-foreigners buying all the homes and leaving them empty for 9 months of the year

I am all for the cap, it should be even lower to be honest. It makes me laugh that before the Tories got into power, everyone was crying out for benefits to be cut but Labour wouldn't do anything. Now it's actually happening for the better of the country, those same people are crying over it!

 

[Orionaut]

Why do you think housing IS so high?

Exactly!

They should have put in rent caps too.

Effectively this change will do just that! Eventually!

 

[Neil79]

They should have put in rent caps too.

They've already done a rent cap

Anyone under 35 will get a max of £315, whereas before it was at least £550! People were living in lavish flats having all of their rent payed, not anymore

 

[Scam]

I think he means a private rent cap across the board. Not just on benefit payments. Which in London would also be a good idea.

 

[Burnsy2023]

I think that's the point. Not the doomed to fail bit, but the bit about housing costs being sky high.

The cynic in me thinks this is a policy designed to force the poor (remember a lot of people receiving benefits aren't jobless) to move out from London and shift them somewhere else.

But then it it the responsibility of the tax payer to subsidise people to live in London? I think there's arguments on both sides of that.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Good idea, but £350 a week is too high if that's "£350 take home", as some suggest?

Surely it would be better to have single earners on £250 and couples on £500? Or am I missing the point? Do the gov want everyone to stay single?

 

[Glaucus]

does this cap all benefits or is this just the living part, how about rent, council tax and all the other benefits?

 

[kwerk]

They should do nothing, they should stop interfering. If you're unemployed you get to live in some disused army barracks, get 3 meals a day and some travel vouchers to go to job interviews. The more stuff the government tries to fix the more stuff it breaks.

 

[Freakbro]

Once rolled out this will only actually affect 40,000 families, and will save 200 million out of the 200 billion welfare bill, so absolute peanuts and shows this is just a populist ideological move based on peoples misconceptions of the scale of the problems.

And since the majority, if not all, of this cut will be effectively from housing benefit costs, it just argues for more affordable social housing needing to be built.

does this cap all benefits or is this just the living part, how about rent, council tax and all the other benefits

Yep, all of those. Not things like DLA