AIBU for wondering how many people on here will be affected by the £500pw benefits cap next year?

[lostgal]

I'm just wondering if there are really people/households who actually receive more than £500 per week in benefits who will actually be affected?

If so, how big an impact will this be on your life?

No, I am not a troll, just genuinely curious to see how common it is and how badly it is likely to affect vulnerable people in our society?

Anyone know if state pensions count in a multi-generational household?

We're not paying rent. We get £30 a week towards our mortgage from the DWP which pays the interest on our mortgage. The rest of our mortgage payment we just don't pay, and the bank is okay with that for the moment.

Sorry, you are also exempt if your household receives DLA, ESA, PIP, Attendance Allowance or Constant Attendance Allowance, or War Widow/Widower's Pension.

Forgive me if I come across as stupid, but surely even in expensive areas of London, once housing is covered, £160 a week is still enough for food, bills etc? .

(assuming that the housing costs are covered by the HB of course)

With £160 you will still have to pay some rent, as even in social housing, its not all covered.. My borough are also stopping council tax benefit for all, so will mean that this will have to come out of the £160. Might be doable but depends on what is your local supermarket, how many children, state of windows etc.

ahhh I see, OK. I assumed council tax was covered too.

OK, that makes sense, thanks for replying.

I think you'd also struggle with £160 a week for things like a fridge breaking down, or the central heating going, having to get a taxi to A&E and back in the middle of the night, somebody losing their entire PE kit and trainers and a hundred other things that are not day to day bills but just happen sometimes.

Blended families in London will probably be hardest hit.

I won't be now (lone parent, 3 kids, income support).

I think I would have been when I was working - my tax credits alone were £440pw.

I wasn't saying it was an ideal amount of money, just that it was potentially doable.

But if the HB doesn't even cover all your rent and then you still have to cover council tax - just makes it impossible, doesn't it.

Seems like a pretty high cap to me!

Spaniel that's not going to happen every week though don't be ridiculous

Of course though, anywhere else in the country it's more than enough money.

£160 would be very hard to live on. That's supposed to cover all utilities, phone, food, clothing, insurances. Then what happens if someone needs shoes or uniform or anything breaks?

I'd find it pretty impossible to live on just my benefits if I didn't get child maintainence, hats off to anyone who manages it!

also if you think of £160 in terms of yearly costs and as pp's have suggested, those annual unanticipated expenditures, as well as xmas, then, no, £160/week is not enough.

we are near the cap because we get the LHA amount of HB which is over £200 for 2 bed house, we have 3 kids, but we get WTC so i guess it doesnt apply to us anyway? without the WTC we are further away from cap.

Kayano, it's not ridiculous at all. Things always crop up! Even if my food budget was only £40 (nigh on impossible) That still only leaves £120 for everything else.

I wasn't suggesting it would happen every week. But if your heating goes and it costs £400 to sort out, it could well take you 20 weeks to save up to pay for it to be fixed if you are living on £160 a week.

People on less than 500 per week are being affected by HB cuts too. The way housing benefit is calculated has fallen from the bottom 50% of local prices to the bottom 30 % leaving some with a shortfall. They are then made to make up the difference from their other benefits.

These people can be on way less than the 26 k cap too. Basically leaving them with not enough money for food fuel etc. This gets missed. The govt have misled people with all the talk of a cap. Basically, they have failed to mention that people on MUCH LESS than 26k are having their benefits cut too.

I will try to find some figures...

I (single parent, two kids, not working) get roughly

£65 pw housing benefit
£25 pw council tax benefit
£71 pw income support
£33 pw child benefit
£110 pw tax credits

So just over £300 pw. So no! phew

The DWP Press Release is quite useful as it lists all the benefits which are (and aren't) included:

www.dwp.gov.uk/newsroom/press-releases/2012/may-2012/dwp046-12.shtml

It will mainly affect families in London and the South East but it will also have an impact in Birmingham:

? The following are areas with more than 1,000 households affected:
Barnet
Birmingham
Brent
Camden
City of Westminster
Croydon
Ealing
Enfield
Hackney
Hammersmith & Fulham
Haringey, Harrow
Islington, Kensington & Chelsea
Newham
Redbridge
Tower Hamlets
Wandsworth

? Scotland: one-third of households affected are in Glasgow or Edinburgh, with the remaining areas having fewer than 200 households each, and in the majority of cases fewer than 100 households. "The number of adults in affected households in Scotland is around 4,000, and the number of children between 7,000 and 8,000"
? Wales: a quarter of households affected are in Cardiff, "with the remaining areas having fewer than 200 households each ? The number of adults in affected households in Wales is around 3,000, and the number of children around 7,000"

There is also a debate about the effect on those in temporary accommodation. The DWP says there is no evidence they would be disproportionately affected. An amendment has been tabled to the bill calling for it to exclude those in temporary accommodation, which people usually get when a local authority accepts them as homeless. This map - created by us today (not the DWP) and based on DCLG data - shows where the highest numbers of households live in temporary accommodation are.

(from this Guardian article: www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jan/23/benefit-cap-impact-assessment-data)

Apologies if I am misinterpreting what Kayano means, but £160 a week is tough to live on, but it's not a high limit if there is another source of income. And £500 a week is more than a lot of people earn

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/22/housing-benefit-cap-62p-a-day?INTCMP=SRCH

This article explains how a family can be left with 62p a day to live on as a result of benefits reform.

My temporary accomodation cost £425 a week. It had no cooking or laundry facilities and was a long way to DDs school.

I really can't see how families in B and B's are going to have enough to live on unless they are exempted from the £500 pw cap.

This was for one room.