London households affected by the benefit cap (2014 - 2023 Q4)
What does this indicator show?
The benefit cap limits the amount of money that most working-age people can receive from benefits. In Greater London the limit is £25,323 per year or £16,697 for single adults with no children. This was reduced in November 2016, and recently increased in April 2023. The benefit cap is applied by either reducing Universal Credit or Housing Benefit (for those not claiming Universal Credit).
What does it tell us?
More than 25,000 households in London had their income reduced by the benefit cap in November 2023. This has increased by more than 35% since before the pandemic (November 2019). However, the number of households affected by the benefit cap has been steeply reducing since a peak of 33,000 households during the pandemic.
The data refers to the month of November for each year spanning 2014 to 2023 and includes caps to Housing Benefit until 2016 and Housing Benefit and out-of-work Universal Credit combined, from 2017 onwards. The data disaggregated by type of benefit and region (London, rest of England) can be found in the CSV download.
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