Money Advice: The Benefit Cap
There's a limit on the total amount of benefit that most people aged 16 to 64 can get. This is called the benefit cap. The £26,000 cap will be reduced to £20,000 in Wales. This currently affects a small but significant group of people including those who may also be carers.
Written by Marcus
—31 May, 2016
The Benefit Cap
There's a limit on the total amount of benefit that most people aged 16 to 64 can get. This is called the benefit cap. The £26,000 cap will be reduced to £20,000 in Wales. This currently affects a small but significant group of people.
Benefits that are affected
The cap applies to the total amount that the people in your household get from the following benefits:
Bereavement Allowance
Carer's Allowance
Child Benefit
Child Tax Credit
Employment and Support Allowance (unless you get the support component)
Guardian's Allowance
Housing Benefit
Incapacity Benefit
Income Support
Jobseeker's Allowance
Maternity Allowance
Severe Disablement Allowance
Universal Credit
Widowed Parent's Allowance (or Widowed Mother's Allowance or Widows Pension you started getting before 9 April 2001)
How much is the benefit cap?
The level of the cap is:
£500 a week for couples (with or without children living with them)
£500 a week for single parents whose children live with them
£350 a week for single adults who don't have children, or whose children don't live with them
This may mean the amount you get for certain benefits will go down to make sure that the total amount you get isn't more than the cap level.
Who won't be affected?
You might still be affected by the cap if you have any grown-up children or non- dependants who live with you and they qualify for one of the benefits below. This is because they won't normally count as part of your household. You're not affected by the benefit cap if anyone in your household qualifies for Working Tax Credit or gets any of the following benefits:
Disability Living Allowance
Personal Independence Payment
Attendance Allowance
Industrial Injuries Benefits (and equivalent payments as part of a war disablement pension or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme)
Employment and Support Allowance (if you get the support component)
War Widow's or War Widower's Pension war pensions
Armed Forces Compensation Scheme
Get in touch!
Our Money Advice Team are on hand to help – get in touch, we don’t bite.
Tel: 01495 745910 or email address moneyadvice@melinhomes.co.uk