The ‘benefit cap’ is a limit on the total amount of benefit that working age people can receive.
The maximum benefit that people in Greater London are allowed to receive each month is currently (2023-2025):
- Single people without children: £1,413.92
- Couples (with or without children) or single claimants with a child of qualifying age: £2,110.25
The Government adds up how much money you get from a range of benefits and if the total comes to more than the maximum amount allowed, your housing benefit payments will be reduced.
The benefits affected are:
- Universal Credit
- Bereavement Allowance
- Child Benefit
- Child Tax Credit
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Housing Benefit
- Incapacity Benefit
- Income Support
- Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Maternity Allowance
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Widowed Parent’s Allowance (or Widowed Mother’s Allowance or Widow’s Pension if you started getting it before 9 April 2001
You are not affected by the cap if you or your partner:
- get Working Tax Credit (even if the amount you get is £0)
- get Universal Credit because of a disability or health condition that stops you from working (this is called ‘limited capability for work and work-related activity’)
- get Universal Credit because you care for someone with a disability, or
- get Universal Credit and you and your partner earn £722 or more a month combined, after tax and National Insurance contributions.
You’re also not affected by the cap if you, your partner or any children under 18 living with you gets:
- Adult Disability Payment (ADP)
- Armed Forces Compensation Scheme
- Armed Forces Independence Payment
- Attendance Allowance
- Carer’s Allowance
- Carer Support Payment
- Child Disability Payment
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
- Employment and Support Allowance (if you get the support component)
- Guardian’s Allowance
- Industrial Injuries Benefits (and equivalent payments as part of a War Disablement Pension or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme)
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
- War pensions
- War Widow’s or War Widower’s Pension
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