London households affected by the benefit cap (2014 - 2023 Q3)
The benefit cap limits the amount of benefit that most working-age people can receive. 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).
The benefit cap reduced the benefits of 8,100 more London households in August 2023 compared to August 2019 (pre-pandemic). This has been steeply reducing since a peak of 35,500 households in 2021.
The data refers to the month of August 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.