Benefits Cap Lords Challenge

Benefits Cap Lords Challenge.

Church of England bishops and Liberal Democrat peers will join forces in an attempt to win concessions when the House of Lords votes later on a benefits cap.  

Ministers are proposing an annual limit on benefits of £26,000.

What the benefit cap will involve

* From April 2013, the total amount of benefit that working-age people can receive will be capped so that households on out-of-work benefits will no longer receive more than the average weekly wage earned by working households.
* The cap will apply to the combined income from the main out-of-work benefits - Jobseeker's Allowance, Income Support, and Employment Support Allowance - and other benefits such as Housing Benefit, Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit

The government believes a cap on benefits would save money and create a fairer welfare system, but not everyone on the coalition side agrees, so there are suggestions of compromise and concessions.  Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has promised to secure “transitional arrangements” to help those affected by the changes - further details on this are expected shortly.

According to Ian Duncan Smith - Work and Pensions Secretary, he is urging those people opposed to aspects of the cap, including leading bishops, to think about those who pay taxes, while some unemployed people live in large houses at public expense.

Mr Duncan Smith has also stated that the public is "overwhelmingly in favour" of the cap, which will bring fairness to the taxpayer as well as fairness to the benefit recipient.