The extended cap will limit total household benefits to £20,000, or £385 a week, outside London [Image: Peter Byrne/PA].

Cutting the amount of money payable to the poorest households, across the UK, at a time when wages have suffered a 10 per cent cut due to the plummeting value of the pound, with worse on the way due to Brexit, is lunacy.

Yet the Tories intend to go ahead with it. They do not understand that the country will face far greater costs if poor families become homeless because they cannot afford the cost of living in the country these rich politicians have created.

No wonder Tory governments always cost the country more than Labour.

More than 116,000 of the poorest households in the UK will be hit by the extended benefit cap, putting many at risk of homelessness, housing experts have predicted.

Nearly 320,000 children live in households likely to be affected by the cap introduced from 7 November. In some cases families will lose up to £115 a week, pushing them into deeper poverty.

The cap rollout, which will be completed by the end of January 2017, limits total household benefits to £23,000 (£442 a week) in London and £20,000 outside the capital (£385 a week).

The lowering of the cap from the previous £26,000 level will mean a big rise in both the number of households hit by the cap penalty, as well as an increase in the types and locations of those affected, according to the CIH.

Unlike the benefit cap introduced in 2013, which mainly hit households in high-rent areas such as London and the handful of families with five or more children, the extended cap will have an impact on families in all areas of the country.

Source: Benefit cap will hit 116,000 of poorest families, say experts | Society | The Guardian

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