Number of universal credit households subject to the benefit cap remains more than twice its pre-Covid-19 level

New DWP statistics show that after rising from 59,000 to 170,000 between March 2020 and March 2021, the number of capped universal credit households had shown only a modest fall by August 2021

The number of universal credit households subject to the benefit cap has remained more than twice its pre-pandemic level, according to new DWP statistics.

In Benefit cap: number of households capped to August 2021, published today, the DWP reports that the total number of universal credit capped households - which increased by 93 per cent from 59,000 households to 110,000 households between March 2020 and April 2020 and then continued to rise to 170,000 up to March 2021- had decreased to 160,000 as at August 2021.

In addition, the figures show that -

• the number of universal credit households newly capped in the three months from May 2021 to July 2021 was 29,000 - 3,900 (12 per cent) fewer households than last quarter (February 2021 to April 2021), when 33,000 households had their benefits capped for the first time.
• 15,000 households returned to the universal credit cap having already been subject to it prior to, but not at, May 2021; and
• the proportion of households claiming universal credit that had their benefits capped at August 2021 was 3.3 per cent, a slight increase from 3.2 per cent at May 2021.

Elsewhere, the DWP provides comparable data for housing benefit households subject to the cap that shows that total capped households decreased from 22,000 in May 2021 to 19,000 in August 2021 (a 12 per cent fall). This continues a slow reduction in numbers since August 2017 when 65,000 housing benefit households were subject to the cap.

For more information, see Benefit cap: number of households capped to August 2021 from gov.uk