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MPs vote for 1% benefits cap

MPs have voted in favour of a proposed 1 per cent cap on raising benefits by a majority of 56. Ministers say the cap is needed because it is unfair that state handouts have been rising twice as fast as wages during recent years of austerity.

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Charity: 'Life will be harder for families' after benefits cap

Matthew Reed, chief executive of the Children's Society, said:

This Bill will punish millions of children and families already struggling to make ends meet.

Two-thirds of families affected - over six million - have children.

As a result of today's move, life will be harder for families from all walks of life, including 300,000 nurses and midwives, 150,000 primary school teachers and 40,000 members of the armed forces.

Families already struggling to provide their children with food or a winter coat, or heat their homes are being pushed closer to the brink.

Child poverty blights lives and is a scar on our society.

Today's 'hardship penalty' punishes working families on low incomes as well as those looking for work, paving the way to a rise in child poverty.

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Four Liberal Democrat MPs vote against benefits cap

The four Liberal Democrat MPs who voted against capping benefits are as follows:

  • MP for Bradford East David Ward
  • MP for Cambridge Julian Huppert
  • MP for Manchester Withington John Leech
  • MP for Brent Central Sarah Teather

The former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and MP for St Ives Andrew George voted in both lobbies - the traditional way of registering an abstention.

ITV News viewers debate benefits cap

ITV News viewers have been debating the Government cap on benefits rises on our Facebook page. Here is a small selection of the comments:

I get child tax credit [and] have worked all my life. [My] fiancée is severely disabled and cannot work - I can tell you I am not a scrounger. In fact I was a copper in the Met for 12 years.

– Martin Mossman

It is too easy for people to go on benefits nowadays. The Government has got to act now and favour ... the workers and the ones willing to work.

– Claude Gabrielle, London

Most people on benefits have not been languishing on them all their lives. They have worked and lost their jobs for varying reasons. Why do people think that everyone on benefits are lazy scroungers[?]

– Pat Chaplin

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Children's Commissioner: Benefits cap could hit poorest families

The Children’s Commissioner for England, Maggie Atkinson, has said she is concerned that the benefits cap will have the "greatest impact" on "children living in families on low incomes".

In a statement she said:

There is emerging evidence from schools that some children are going hungry and do not have appropriate clothing because parents and carers can simply no longer afford them ...

I oppose measures which are likely to drive more children into poverty, reduce their life chances and restrict access to an adequate standard of living.

It is unacceptable that children should have to pay the price for the economic malaise of our country.

– Maggie Atkinson, Children’s Commissioner for England

MPs react to benefits cap vote on Twitter

MPs are reacting on Twitter to the Government's proposal to cap benefits passing its first hurdle in the Commons.

Conservative MP Gavin Barwell has called Labour's opposition a "big mistake" while Labour MP Chris Williamson said the Bill would "increase child poverty".

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