Downing Street Says » Benefit payments

Asked if the plans for a benefit cap had been watered down, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the policy remained unchanged.

Asked what Lord Freud had been talking about yesterday when he spoke about exceptional circumstances’, the PMS replied that Iain Duncan Smith had put out a statement this morning saying that the policy was unchanged and the 26,000 cap remained in place.

The PMS said that with regard to Lord Freud’s comments, it was true that in the proposals we had published, there were some exemptions. For instance the cap did not apply to households that included someone who was in receipt of working tax credits and it did not apply to households that included a child receiving a disability living allowance. The PMS added that these exemptions were already in the proposals.

Asked if there would be any further exemptions, the PMS said that there was no change to the policy. Asked if any further exemptions would be considered, the PMS said that Parliament was currently looking at the proposals. The policy as set out was currently being considered by the House of Commons.

On whether the Prime Minister had concerns that the current policy could be unfair to families with a large number of children, the PMS replied that people should remember why we brought the policy in, in the first place; it was an issue of whether taxpayers in this country thought it was fair that certain families were receiving more than the average wage in benefits. The Prime Minister took the view that we shouldn’t be giving more than the average wage in benefits to a family.

Asked if introducing more exemptions would constitute changing the policy, the PMS said that we would not be changing the policy. Put that the Prime Minister was ruling out further exemptions, the PMS said that this legislation was subject to debate in the House of Commons, but we had been very clear on what the policy was; there would be a 26,000 cap, but there would be certain groups of people exempt from that cap.

Asked about Lord Freud mentioning further proposals later this year, the PMS said that the policy was not changing. On whether there would be an exemption for families living in London for instance, the PMS said that that was not in the proposals.

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» Monday, June 13, 2011

Benefit payments

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