An impossible move? Households' experiences of trying to escape the Benefit Cap

Ruth Patrick, Kate Andersen, Kitty Stewart, Aaron Reeves and Mark Fransham

Published 31 July 2024

Recent governments have increasingly used their power to attempt to alter the behaviour of people in receipt of social security benefits. This can be seen in the case of the Benefit Cap, a policy introduced with a specific goal of changing the behaviour of those directly affected by withdrawing state support. The desired behaviour includes moving to cheaper accommodation, portrayed as easily achievable in the government's justification of the policy. Drawing on case studies from qualitative longitudinal research with parents affected by the Benefit Cap, this article demonstrates that, contrary to the government narrative, individuals are relatively powerless to change their housing situations, which are routinely already overcrowded and of poor quality. Instead, affected households experience state-imposed hardship. We argue that both the cap itself, and the narrative ascribing social security recipients with a power they do not have to improve their circumstances, need to go.