Exclusive: Benefit Cap Sees Lone Working Parents’ Income Plummet £624 This Year

Single working parents will see their incomes plummet by a “shameful” £624 this year due to the benefit freeze, according to new research shared with HuffPost UK.

Analysis of how the 2015 welfare squeeze has hit lone parents – almost all of which (85%) are single mums – lays bare the staggering drop in real terms income for this group. 

A lone parent with two children working 35 hours-a-week, earning the national living wage and claiming child and/or working tax credits, will see their overall net income fall to £624 less in real terms in 2019-20, compared to 2015-16, the analysis showed.

Former Chancellor George Osborne capped the overall amount of benefit a household could receive in 2014 to £20,000 a year, or £23,000 in Greater London, as an “incentive” to get people into work. 

Most benefits are included under the cap, including universal credit, jobseekers’ allowance, income support, child benefit, housing benefit and child tax credit.

The analysis shows that, while the National Living Wage will climb to £8.21 in April, the four-year freeze on social security payments will remain in place until March 2020, dealing the huge £624 blow to their average overall income. 

The Women’s Budget Group, an independent network of leading academic researchers and campaigners, said the figures showed young single mums “shoulder most of the burden” of the benefit cap. The study was commissioned by Labour using House of Commons Library data. 

When presented with the research, employment minister Alok Sharma said that employment levels were at a record high.

Janet Veitch, from the WBG, said the charity was renewing its calls for the government to “think about the impact of its policies on women before they make changes, and not leave women and children dependent on food banks and other charities”.