Benefit cap

The benefit cap in the United Kingdom limits the amount in state benefits that an individual household can claim per year. The benefit cap started in 2013 at £26,000 per year (£500 per week) which was the average family income in the UK. For single people with no children it was set at £18,200 per year (£350 per week). From Autumn 2016 it was reduced to £20,000, except in London where it was reduced to £23,000. In 2023 for a couple or a household with children it was £25,323 in London and £22,020 outside of London. For a single person, the annual thresholds are £16,967 in London and £14,753 outside of London.

The policy was challenged in court in 2015 by two lone mothers who said that the benefit cap was discriminatory and unfair. The Supreme Court said it was lawful but three of the five judges concluded that the benefit cap breached the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In 2015 there was also a successful legal challenge on the grounds that it unlawfully discriminated against disabled people and their carers. The policy was changed so that it did not apply to people who get Carer's Allowance. In 2019 a case by lone parents who argued that the benefit cap discriminated generally against women, who make up most of the population of single parents, and specifically against lone parents with young children failed. The court held by a majority of 5–2 that the discriminatory effects are justified.