The “cruel and catastrophic” Tory benefit cap will deprive poor Brits of £65 a week as inflation skyrockets, damning research says today.
The £20,000 limit on each household’s welfare payments - £23,000 in London - has not changed since 2016 despite soaring prices.
The Child Poverty Action Group today warned of a “growing gulf” between the cap and benefit rates and the cost of living.
It said axing the cap would give an average £65 a week extra to those hit from April, when benefits are expected to rise around 10%.
If the cap does not change, more than 100,000 households will not get an extra penny from the long-awaited uprating in April.
CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said: "The benefit cap is cruel and irrational at the best of times.
“Many parents subject to it can't escape it by working more because they are caring for very young children and housing costs are completely out of their control.
"But in the current crisis, its effects will be truly catastrophic for hundreds of thousands of children, pushing many into deep poverty.”
She added: “There can be no doubt that leaving it in place will damage the lives of children up and down the country."
Former Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey had repeatedly refused to scrap the benefit cap.
She said the cap might be reviewed next April, but did not promise to do so. She is now deputy PM and has been replaced by Chloe Smith.
Tories claimed the policy would push families on benefits into work or a smaller flat.
But critics say it has caused social cleansing as rents go up, pushing poorer families out of inner cities.
Because housing is such a big part of the benefits bill, many capped families end up forking out more of what they have on rent.
The cap now hits 120,000 households - two thirds of them single parents - and 35,000 people are expected to fall into it this year.
CPAG said the average capped couple with two children is £150 a week below the poverty line, and removing it would only cost £500m.
The DWP claimed the cap provides a strong work incentive and and is fair to taxpayers. Two fifths of Universal Credit claimants are in work.
The department also referred to the Government's £37 billion support package to help the public through the cost-of-living crisis, and the new cap on average energy bills this winter.
