DWP under fire for discriminatory cap

Louise Nousratpour
Tuesday March 15 March 2011
The Morning Star

Government ministers came under fire today after they admitted that three in 10 families from ethnic minority backgrounds will be hit by the coalition's benefit cap.

The coalition plans to limit the amount of available household benefits to about £26,000 a year, with a single universal credit replacing the various benefits that families can claim.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) said that 30 per cent of households affected by the cap will have at least one family member from an ethnic minority, which make up 20 per cent of the country's population as a whole.

The figures were obtained following an equality impact assessment (EIA), which also accepted that the changes would lead to some families facing homelessness.

Equality Minister Chris Grayling attempted to excuse the greater impact of the benefit cap on ethnic minority families by claiming that it was "because they tended to have more children."

He was answering a written parliamentary question from Labour's Kate Green who accused coalition ministers of presiding over "punitive" policies.

The Stretford and Urmston MP, who had asked the question back in January, said: "The EIA result is not very encouraging. It clearly shows that the Welfare Reform Bill has a disproportionate impact on large families - 80 per cent of those hit will be families with three or more children.

"They will be losing £93 a week, which is a huge amount for people who rely on benefits. Ethnic minority families will be hit at a greater extent than their composition of the population."

Ms Green, who is backing several amendments to mitigate the worst impacts of the Bill as it goes through Parliament, said: "The government must rethink its punitive policy."

Zacchaeus 2000 Trust chairman Paul Nicolson said that everyone who was poor would be hit hard by the welfare changes.

"The caps on benefits will be a big squeeze on big families, disabled people and the unemployed, whose numbers are on the rise.

"Their income support is already on a downward trend because of rise in food and fuel costs as well as plans to switch the uprating of benefits from retail price index to the lower consumer price index."

Mr Nicolson also questioned government claims that working families will be better off because of the changes.