‘Another blow to the austerity agenda’.

Jack Sommers – Assistant News Editor, HuffPost UK

The Government’s benefits cap is causing “real misery” to lone parents’ young children, the High Court has said in a damning judgment of austerity-driven welfare cuts.

In the damning judgment, Mr Justice Collins said the four single mothers who brought the case were left having to choose between paying rent or food and “unable to provide basic necessities for their children” because of a cap on housing benefit for parents who work less than 16 hours a week.

The cap was introduced in 2012 under the Cameron Government’s austerity drive and revised in 2016.

The judge said the cap illegally discriminated against single parents with young parents, who could not work because of childcare demands.

The judge suggested one of the DWP’s arguments made in court defending the cap was ‘offensive’

The claimants’ lawyers called his judgment “another blow to the austerity agenda”.

Mr Justice Collins highlighted how the cap was hurting the claimants and dismissed the Government’s defence of it.

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