Estimates of the numbers expected to be affected by the government’s Housing Benefit Cap have risen in an updated impact assessment by the Department for Work and Pensions, Impact Assessment for the Household Benefit Cap. The latest estimate is that the £26,000 benefit cap will reduce the incomes of 67,000 households, covering 90,000 adults and 220,000 children, in the year 2013/14. This is an increase on the government’s previous estimates of 50,000 households. Benefits for these households are expected to reduce on average by around £83 per week. Nearly 20 per cent of those households losing benefit will lose more than £150 per week.

The modelling suggests that, in the absence of any behavioural response to the policy, the numbers of households affected will rise to 75,000 in 2014/15.

The full Impact Assessment for the Household Benefit Cap is available from the Department for Work and Pensions website.