Tory Government’s benefit cap is unlawful and causes 'real misery for no good purpose', High Court rules

[Skutterfly]

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/benefit-cap-judicial-review-welfare-payments-government-loses-lawsuit-court-case-judge-misery-a7802286.html

Finally

[BandeauSally]

Good! So what does this mean? Will it be scrapped?

[StormTreader]

Im confused at the hate for the cap - £23k limit in london, but thats equivalent to about 30k salary before tax, isnt it?

Are they saying that thats impossible to live on? Because surely if thats the case, they need to urgently increase the minimum wage to match it.

How can they say that a 16k salary is fine, but 23k benefits is unlivable?

[witsender]

Because if you had a £16k salary you would also get a fair whack of benefits.

[Skutterfly]

It says in the article it may mean they will have to scrap it. I don't see how they can't if it's a high court ruling but maybe they'll find a way around it

[BarbaraofSeville]

Because if you had a £16k salary you would also get a fair whack of benefits

Not necessarily. You'd only get tax credits if you had DCs and were single or if you had a partner they were also on a low income.

[MyPatronusIsAUnicorn]

I'm certainly no Tory, but i don't see anything wrong with a benefit cap. They won't pay tax on it so a take home pay of nearly 2k a month without working for it is pretty good! My DH is a manager with a good job and has only just gone over this amount.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

This is only relevant to single parents with a child under aged 2 though.

[JamieXeed74]

Dear god what is the world coming to when you can't live on £20,000 a year to sit on your ass and do bugger all.

[user1471439240]

Benefit cap doesnt apply if a person works 16hrs or is disabled or is a pensioner.
So yes, it is a bizzare ruling. Surely many people working 16hrs to recieve in work benefits will just return to not working?

[AndNowItIsSeven]

We aren't talking about single people though, we are talking about families with children. If rents are very high that's what causes the problem. People are not claiming benefits and walking round with £500 a week cash in their pockets!

[Ifailed]

Dear god what is the world coming to when you can't live on £20,000 a year to sit on your ass and do bugger all.

Maybe some people can only sit on their arse, and can do bugger all?

[user1471439240]

Perversely, a banner ad on this site is recruiting soldiers for the British Army - 18k a year, full time, hard work, oh and tax, ni and pension to pay from the 18k.
Dear God indeed!

[brasty]

This is about families with very high rents.
There are many single people on low wages who simply can not afford the rents in places that are expensive to live. Once your children are grown up, any benefits will be pretty low.

[DoloresTheRunawayTrain]

Oh good. When are they going to start in on the nightmare that is Universal Credit? Work advisors are already swamped with the number of back to work interviews they have to do that they have resorted to moving people from their weekly face to face appointment to a fortnightly five minute phone call.
They can't cope with the volume of people they have to see now. What's going to happen when everyone on Tax Credits moves over and everyone has to have a weekly interview until they are working full time?
Oh and btw once you move off UC you are still supposed to have these meeting for 6 months.
Don't even get me started on what they have done for disabled claimants (which is stick their fingers in their ears and decide they have no additional problems to overcome so they can be subject to the same conditions as everyone else with no concession).
This government has aggressively pursued a mandate to legislate disability out of existence. They want disabled or to either be institutionalised or working with the full capabilities of an able bodied person even if it kills them. There's no in between. No consideration for fluctuations in capability. No room for those who work but can't cope with full time work. Carers also get shafted here in a similar fashion and any attempt to get things changed has been studiously ignored.
When is the treatment of disabled people and their carers going to be addressed? Then again, as with everything else, the government will probably steam on ahead regardless.

[brasty]

I remember working in London 30 years ago as a young single person. My BF who was a basic recruit in the army was ironically way better off than I was.

[DoloresTheRunawayTrain]

Ignore the errant *or there.

[Alfieisnoisy]

The vast majority will not get anywhere what the benefit cap ...only in certain circumstances would you be called.

I was a single parent for a long while with a disabled child and had a period of time claiming benefits
I got nothing NEAR £23k.

Too many people see that figure and assume that anyone not working gets that amount. Most people don't,

[jeaux90]

The ignorance of some people astounds me. The claimants are single parents and yes it is discriminatory. I'm really happy about the ruling.

[brasty]

It basically affects some families in London. Hardly anyone outside of London is affected. And that is because of the high cost of rents.

[Countrygirl38]

Oh for goodness sake! They are not getting that as cash. Much of it goes on rent. If yoy live in London and have very high rent then the £23 grand doesnt go very far!!

[Lokisglowstickofdestiny]

Govt is going to appeal.

[NameChanger22]

I'm a single parent. I support the benefit cap for most people, although there needs to be exceptions for the disabled etc. There isn't a bottomless pit of free money to give to everyone.

I also think we also need make more affordable and council housing available for people on low incomes and I think minimum wage needs to rise. Most people would rather be paid well enough that they have no need for benefits.

[BarbaraofSeville]

But people who work full time and earn £30k end up with about £23k after tax and have to pay their rent ouf of that amount, usually without any benefits. What's the difference?

[Cocklodger]

So someone stuck in a house somewhere expensive say the SE paying rents of over £1000 a month (I know someone paying 1.5 for a 2 up 2 down) who cannot afford to move privately and likely won't get a council house (in some areas of the SE you need to be homeless AND otherwise vulnerable to get one in less than a good few years) should just starve yeah?

[AndNowItIsSeven]

Choice Barbara.