Thursday, November 21, 2013

Tory Party’s Breathtaking Benefit Cap Lie

Reblogged from The Void:



The Tory Party Press Office have resorted to bare-faced lies to defend the vicious Benefit Cap which could lead to 200,000 children becoming homeless.

In a tweet accompanied by the ludicrous graphic above, the Tories claimed that Labour voted “keep unlimited benefits for those who can work but don’t.”

The Tory press team are referring to the Benefit Cap which will mean many low income families are no longer able to live in many parts of London and other cities where rents are high. There was never any intention that the Benefit Cap was aimed at those who ‘can work but don’t’. Benefits were already capped at £71.70 plus Housing Benefits for single unemployed people without children or a health condition, whilst Housing Benefits had previously been capped at £250 for this group.

The Benefit Cap was precision-aimed at those who cannot work, whether through sickness, disability or because they are already working as parents, often with very young children. Even Iain Duncan Smith acknowledges that single parents with children not yet at school are unable to work in many cases. Many families affected by the cap are on ESA – the benefit for people who have been judged currently unable to work due to sickness or disability. Some single parents affected by the cap may even be working, only those with full time jobs are exempt.

The Benefit Cap made no difference to the pittance single parents receive in their pockets, but instead is intended to force them to move by cutting payments to landlords.

Families affected by this cap are now in limbo, dependent on Discretionary Housing Payments – which means their benefits haven’t actually been capped – but those payments will run out next year. The Benefit Cap has always been about the mass social cleansing of London and other more affluent areas and it is only just getting started.  None of the people about to have their lives destroyed are on mainstream unemployment benefits.  Most of them are young children, toddlers and babies.