£25,000 benefits cap

[Xenia]

Average family has £26,000 to live on including housing. So from 2013 the most benefits available for one family will be £26,000 including housing benefit. Sounds like a sensible plan. Well done George Osborne. How did we ever get to a contrary position in the first place?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11463435

The abhorrent selling off of council housing stock is at the root of the expensive benefits bills, forcing people to rent privately and line the pockets of private landlords with HB. Following on from that is the subsequent increase in the cost of purchasing housing, making it very difficult for people on lower incomes to escape the rental market.

Thanks to Thatcher in the first place, and every government since for not addressing this, and instead introducing 'affordable' housing...ie. buy a quarter of a flat at the current market price, but hooray - developers still turn massive profits whilst getting planning permission where they otherwise would not have done!

George Osborne on Jeremy Vine at the mo trying to justify himself.

chochosan Very good point.

It never ends does it?

If there was more affordable housing available then it would be easier to cap benefits, probably at a lower rate than £25k. The cases of people receiving huge amounts in benefits which feature in the Daily Mail are always in receipt of huge sums of housing benefit. The libdems were in favour of building social housing during the election campaign. I imagine they no longer are

Chochisan beat me to it. I agree.

If it was any less than 25k and you lost your job you would find it hard pushed to live,This is what the govt have calculated it costs to live reasonably.2 people on minimum wage would also get tax credits and HB so it probably balances out.I know there are people who play the system but MOST people would love a decent job and a life not an existence All this talk of scroungers and bludgers does nothing to help the situation and is hugely misguided and disrespectful.

£25,000 a year??? I don't earn that and I work full time. It should be a cap that is well below the value of working full time on the minimum wage. Otherwise, obviously, what is the point in working? Before I get flamed, I am not refering to people that are disabled. I don't care whether someone has 10 kids, you should not get more than me if you don't work. Child poverty? YOU should have thought about that before you had so many children. People keep saying the government should keep their noses out of our business but this seems to end as soon as people want hand-outs.

Why should it be well below the minimum wage?WHy should you be punished for losing your job.Obviously people who have never worked is a differnet story but if you have built a home and lifestyle and paid into the tax system you should be able to still live until you find a job.

"WHy should you be punished for losing your job"

Exactly. Especially at a time when so many have been made redundant (oh what a short memory some people have) A lot of companies have gone down the drain in the last few years in case anyone has forgotten. How many people here can say they don't know anyone who has been made redundant?

Noddyholder-I had been out of work for 8 months until recently and because I had some savings, I received nothing-not a penny in benefits. I got flamed on MN for saying I thought this was unfair. Now it seems the same people are bleating on about losing a few quid in child benefit!!

If benefits are capped at £25k, what will happen to people with disabilities, who may well (depending on their needs) have higher heating or power bills, may well need particular adapted housing, have all sorts of other expenses (transport for instance) that non-disabled people just don't face?

And has it occurred to the rich to wonder how they will get their houses cleaned, or their post delivered, or their streets swept and so on if all the people at the bottom of the pile are forced out of the cities where rents are high? Cleaners won't be able to afford to commute from cheapville miles away from the new ghettos for the professional classes.

Hammy - you must have had more than what, 30K in savings at the start of this period? As a taxpayer yourself, do you think it's fair to ask other taxpayers to support someone who has tens of thousands of pounds in savings?

edam - people with disabilities were excluded from the cap - it was just restricted to people who should be looking for work.

i agree with it. i don't see why my taxes should be spent on providing a better standard of living for people who aren't working than the average person who does. though possibly it should be reduced as its not taxed - whereas the 26k average earnings would be. Plus some form of regional variation to reflect the cheaper cost of living in some places

Does this cap apply to disability benefits too.

I welcome it if not, especially if few families get that much anyway. So it will only be trimming out the anomalies in the system where some few families are doing better by not working than by finding a job. And if that's the case, where's the incentive to work?

However, the disabled and their carers incur higher costs than the average person, so I would hope that disabled benefit is being treated entirely differently.

If this excludes people with disabilities then i think it could be a good idea.

It would stop all the benefit scrounger threads on here for a start.

It would make people who feel they are entitled to more than 25k get off their arses and work for it.

It would save the country a fortune.

It probably won't help everyone, but in the main, I do feel it is a good idea.

Hmm, what's the minimum vage? If you have people who are working their tails off for 10-15K and making ends meet why should anyone get more in benefits for not working at all?
Very, very simplistic view but a valid question nevertheless.

edam - do you think it's fair ask someone who has been sensible enough to save up tens of thousands of pounds to give it all up when someone else who never bothered to look after their own future gets the state handout? There are two sides to Hammy's situation.

Minimum wage definitely needs raising though.

I don't agree with the cuts in Child Benefit. If the Gov. want to save money then cut the Winter Fuel Allowances to those living abroad. If you chose to leave Britian then you should not have the same rights as those who remain!

Thank you AnnieLobeseder-My savings were to go towards a deposit for a house - I am currently renting. By Edam's argument, its fine for me to have to eat into savings following redundancy but someone who is paying a mortgage on say a £250,000 home needs more protection than me?

Whilst I think the vast majority of people on benefits are either trapped through circumstance (carers or inability to work) there are pockets of the country where there's a culture of not working. This does need to stop, by ensuring that working makes you much better off and inability to work is managed well and relevant assistance is made available. Personally I would raise disability/carer benefits with saving s made from people working.

I would also give a one off back to work tax band which means for the first six working months following long unemployment you get reduced tax rate.

I agrEe with strectch my dh works full time and also has a second job as a british solider we have four children and he works BLOODY hard to support us,I help care for my father which I do not claim carers allowance for(i do not wish to be paid to look after my own father!)
so yes we do need some of these benefits just to survive.
we dont have luxury items we dont have a car and we havnt been on holiday foR 8 years.We are not all scroungers!

We pay taxes into the benefits pot, not just to help those in need, but also for ourselves if we should fall on hard times. So I don't think it's remotely fair to begrudge someone who has paid in when they take back out, no matter what they may happen to have in savings.

That's a very good idea Posie!

Has anyone ever written to the government with ideas like this? Cos I've heard some very good one this week, and wonder if the powers that be might not like them too.

So they trawl Mumsnet?

"bubblerock - How many working families get £25000 in benefits?"

well - - if I were to work 40hrs a week in a minimum wage job, with (random figure) £120 a week of childcare costs (I have 3 DC) then I would get "handouts" of around 23k a year plus my £8900 a year (after tax and NI) so a total "income" of around 30k a year

And I live in an area with fairly low rental costs. If I lived elsewhere the figure could be quite a bit higher.

I currently get less than 20k in handouts.