Benefit Cap: Child and Family Well-being

Debate between Baroness Buscombe and Lord Bishop of Portsmouth

Monday 30th April 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Buscombe]

My Lords, we welcomed recent external research on the benefit cap, working with local authorities. We are finding that there is a positive employment impact from the lower benefit cap, even at such an early stage in a child’s life. This supports our evidence that the cap is increasing work incentives for previously workless households.

[The Lord Bishop of Portsmouth]

My Lords, welfare reform was predicated on the principal that work should pay, but that principal is being undermined, not least by the two-child limit. In future, a family with three or more children seeking to avoid the cap by moving into work will find themselves subject to the two-child limit instead. They could end up losing out by going to work. What assessment have the Government made of the impact of this perverse incentive?