Jeff's Post

Benefit Cap – Time for fact not fiction
The facts, realities and impacts of the heinous Overall Benefit Cap (OBC)

The extremely cautious Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has issued a report to say the reducing overall benefit cap will affect 116,000 families which is 32% more than the DWP or government estimate. That figure is bullshit.

Their report is on the front page of the Independent and is referred to in all the main national newspapers with many focusing on its claim that over 300,000 children will be affected by this.

What a pity that the analysis is wrong and still significantly understates the numbers affected and says absolutely bugger all about the impacts of the worst ‘welfare reform’ of the lot.

The CIH numbers only detail families with 1 – 4 children and DOES NOT INCLUDE single people, couples or families with 5 or more children. They are therefore a significant underestimate of the households that will be affected.

My cautiously low projection is the OBC will affect 157,973 families that will contain 527,630 children.

More important than the numbers is the fact that the average cut per family to their housing benefit will increase from the current average of £58 per week to £76 per week which gives an acute and immediate risk of eviction and homelessness to these families.