Benefits cap will stay says Minister

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith yesterday denied the Government was preparing to dump a proposed £26,000 annual cap on benefit payments in the latest of a series of policy retreats.

By The Newsroom

Published 14th Jun 2011, 07:00 BST

Welfare Reform Minister Lord Freud fuelled expectations that the policy would be softened when he detailed a series of exemptions from the proposed cap during a television interview on Sunday.

Liberal Democrat members of the coalition are understood to be uneasy about the handout limit, set by Chancellor George Osborne at the level of the average income of a working family.

But Mr Duncan Smith today denied there had been any U-turn.

“The benefit cap will restore fairness to the taxpayer and fairness to those who do the right thing on benefits,” he said.

“The policy is unchanged. The £26,000 benefits cap remains.”

Mr Duncan Smith’s comments were echoed by Downing Street, where a Number 10 spokesman confirmed that the policy was “unchanged” and the cap level was being kept.