There is now an online benefits cap calculator on the DirectGov website, allowing advisers to illustrate how the benefits cap might affect clients.
In October 2010 George Osborne announced a number of benefits measures to be introduced in 2013.
These were: a new maximum £500 a week cap on welfare benefits designed to ensure that workless households no longer receive more than the average working family receives in pay and the withdrawal of child benefit from households paying tax at the higher rate.
From April 2013 there will be a cap for lone-parent and couple households of around £500 a week, which is the equivalent of a net salary of £26,000 per year, or a gross figure of £35,000 per year.
There will also be a cap of around £350 per week for single-adult households.
The cap will apply to combined income derived from benefits including jobseekers allowance, income support, employment support allowance, housing benefit, child benefit, carers allowance and later the new universal credit.
There are various exemptions from the cap, such as households where someone is claiming working tax credits; households with a claimant or partner getting attendance allowance, industrial injuries benefit or disability living allowance.
The latest estimates are that the cap will affect 67,000 households in 2013/14 and 75,000 in 2014/15. By far the worst are those living in Greater London with 54% of households affected, compared to 9% in the South east in general.
