Benefits are falling in real terms

20,000 households were affected by the benefit cap in February 2022. This limits the amount of social security households receive, with affected families losing an average of £236 a month. Inflation has seen the real value of benefits fall by far larger amounts (and the benefit cap hasn’t increased since 2013). Almost all affected families are in deep poverty; many are at risk of homelessness and debt already, even before inflation and price increases hit.

Just before the pandemic, one in two children in single-parent families were in relative poverty – twice as many as children in two-parent families. Relative poverty for children of single parents rose from 40% to 49% between 2014 and 2020, because single parent incomes fell further behind average incomes. Much of this was driven by reductions in the real value of state benefits between 2011 and 2019, as low-income single parents are especially reliant on income from benefits. Benefits cuts have offset increasing employment incomes in recent years.

Benefit deductions (taken automatically by DWP to repay debts owed to the government or utility companies) are making the situation worse. 93% of households who are on means tested benefits and have experienced benefit deductions have gone without at least one essential this year. Households subject to benefit deductions are two times likelier to be in arrears than other households. 53% of them are going without four or more essentials. 72% of universal credit claimants with benefit deductions have gone hungry in the last month. This comes on top of a decade of benefits cuts and freezes. The May 2022 cost of living package will do little to help the 4.6 million lower-income households that are already in arrears by an average of £1,600.