Benefit cap statistics: 160,000 households capped in May 2026

DWP's latest figures, published on 22 September 2026, show that 160,000 households had their benefits capped in May 2026. Almost all of them were capped through Universal Credit: only 150 households were still capped through Housing Benefit. That is 53,000 more households (48%) than in February 2026 and 47,000 more (41%) than in May 2025, and it means 2.3% of working-age households on Universal Credit were capped, up from 1.5% in February 2026. The count is a snapshot, not a total for the quarter. DWP counts a household as capped in a month if it had a capped assessment period running on the reference date, the second Thursday of that month. The figures cover England, Scotland and Wales only, so Northern Ireland is not included. DWP rounds figures between 100,001 and 1,000,000 to the nearest 10,000, so the headline 160,000 is a rounded number, and its percentages are worked out from the unrounded counts. Behind the headline, 88,000 of the May 2026 households were already capped in February 2026, 58,000 were capped for the first time between March and May 2026, and 22,000 had been capped at some point before February 2026 and were capped again. DWP notes these flow figures do not sum to the 160,000 total, because households that move on and off the cap between quarters are not included in the quarterly totals. To see whether your own household is over the limit, use the Benefit Cap Calculator.

DWP does not name a single cause. Its release says the figures for March to May 2026 "should be viewed in the context of annual uprating, rebalancing of UC and the removal of the two-child limit", that the benefit cap levels were unchanged, and that "the statistics do not identify the extent to which these policies may have contributed to the change observed." All three changes took effect in April 2026. DWP's methodology note says UK benefits increased by 3.8% in 2026, that the Universal Credit standard allowance was increased above inflation under the rebalancing reform, and that the two-child limit was removed from 6 April 2026. What DWP does explain is the mechanism: an increase to eligible benefit income, everything else being equal, may take a household over the cap for its area and family type. The cap did not move to absorb it. It is still £1,835.00 a month for a couple or single parent outside Greater London and £2,110.25 inside it, the same annual limits that have applied since April 2023. It has happened before. DWP's February 2026 release notes that when the cap was left unchanged in April 2024 and benefits were uprated (alongside a rise in Local Housing Allowance), capped Universal Credit households rose from 69,000 to 111,000 between March and May 2024, and that when the cap levels were raised in April 2023 the number fell from 96,000 to 75,000 in a month. DWP also points out that many other things move a household onto the cap, such as changes in work, earnings, living arrangements or health.

For assessment periods starting on or after 6 April 2026, Universal Credit pays the child element for every child, under the Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Act 2026. A family that got no child element for a third or later child born between 6 April 2017 and 5 April 2026 (unless an exception applied) now gets £303.94 a month for that child, which the Universal Credit Child Element Calculator adds up for your household. The benefit cap is then applied to the total of the benefits that count towards it, including Universal Credit and Child Benefit, and the amount above the limit, minus any childcare costs element, is taken off your Universal Credit (regulations 79 to 81 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013). So the arithmetic is simple. For a single parent or couple outside Greater London, if the benefits that count towards the cap were already above £1,531.06 a month (the £1,835.00 cap minus one child element), one extra child element takes you over it. In London the equivalent figure is £1,806.31. If you were already capped, the new element is taken back in full: DWP says that where a household is not exempt, the additional child element "may increase the amount of Benefit Cap applied to the UC award". DWP adds that households whose youngest child is over 9 would not get higher payments from the change. The release shows capped households with three children rising from 26,000 to 48,000 between February and May 2026, but DWP says the statistics do not identify the extent to which this policy may have contributed. The guide to how the two-child limit has ended covers the change itself.

Mostly families with children, and mostly single parents. In May 2026, 81% of capped households (130,000) included children, compared with 79% in February 2026 and 84% in May 2025, and 70% were single-parent families, up from 67% in February. Every household type grew over the quarter. Single parents rose by 55%, from 74,000 to 110,000. Single people with no children rose by 33%, from 23,000 to 30,000. Couples with children rose by 33%, from 14,000 to 18,000, and made up 11% of the total. The shift towards larger families is the clearest change in this release. Households with three children rose from 26,000 to 48,000 and those with four from 13,000 to 20,000, while 8,300 households had five or more children. The most common number of children in a capped household is now three; in February 2026 and in May 2025 it was two. Households with no children, one child or two children all grew in number too, but each became a smaller share of the total. Young children are strongly represented: 70,000 capped single parents (61%) had at least one child under 5, up from 43,000 in February, and 34,000 (29%) had a child under 2, up from 21,000.

London, by a distance. At May 2026, 4.3% of Universal Credit households in London were capped, up from 3.3% in February 2026, followed by the South East (3.0%), the East of England (2.6%) and the West Midlands (2.4%). Scotland had the lowest share at 1.0%, with the North East at 1.2% and Wales at 1.4%. The ten local authorities with the highest shares were all in London, the South East or the East of England. Harrow had the highest at 6.3%, followed by Ealing at 5.9%, then Watford, Slough and Enfield at 5.7%. London's capped households also look different from everywhere else: 44% of them are single people with no children, compared with 20% in the South East, 12% in the East of England, 10% in the South West and 5% or less in the other regions, Scotland and Wales. In every region outside London except the South East, around 80% of capped households have children. London has its own, higher cap, £2,110.25 a month for a couple or single parent and £1,413.92 for a single person, but DWP's release does not give a reason for the regional pattern, so this page does not guess at one. The regional table in the figures section below lists every region and nation.

More than before. The average (mean) amount taken by the cap was £346 a month in May 2026, compared with £237 in February 2026 and £255 in May 2025, which DWP describes as £110 higher than in February. The largest group is still capped by a modest amount, but it is no longer a majority: 43% (70,000) were capped by £200 a month or less, down from 57% in February 2026. The number capped by larger amounts grew fastest. 16,000 households (10%) lost more than £800 a month, up from 3,700 (3%), and within that group 3,400 (2%) lost more than £1,300 a month, up from 570. The whole reduction comes out of Universal Credit. Child Benefit and the other benefits that count towards the cap are still paid in full, so the entire cut shows up in your Universal Credit payment. Because the cap is applied last, after earnings have been tapered, a household with a large award can lose several hundred pounds a month while one just over the limit loses very little. The Benefit Cap Calculator shows how much the cap takes from your own award and whether an exemption would lift it.

Mostly through work. Between March and May 2026, 33,000 households moved off the cap, a figure DWP calls provisional because some of them will return to it. Of those, 59% (20,000) left because their earnings reached the earnings exemption threshold, which is £881 a month for 2026/27. The other 41% (14,000) left for other reasons, which DWP says include benefit income falling below the cap, starting to receive a benefit that exempts the household, or no longer claiming Universal Credit. Earnings are the exit DWP counts separately, but they are not the only one, and the others do not depend on how much you earn. A health element, a carer element, or a qualifying disability or carer's benefit for you, your partner or a child living with you lifts the cap completely, however large the award. For a household that has just been capped, checking those routes is often worth more than checking the arithmetic. The guide to the benefit cap and how to get out of it goes through each exemption, and the next section summarises them.

GOV.UK lists them, and regulations 82 and 83 of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 set them out in law. You are not affected by the cap if you or your partner get Universal Credit because a health condition stops you working (limited capability for work and work-related activity), get Universal Credit because you care for someone with a disability, or earn £881 or more a month between you after tax and National Insurance. You are also exempt if you, your partner or a child under 18 living with you gets one of a list of benefits, including Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance, Adult Disability Payment, Child Disability Payment, Attendance Allowance, Pension Age Disability Payment, Carer's Allowance, Carer Support Payment, Guardian's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance with the support component, Industrial Injuries Benefits or a war pension. You are not affected if you are over State Pension age, but in a couple where one of you is under it, the cap may apply. There is also a grace period of up to 9 months. You get it if you claim Universal Credit because you stopped work or your earnings fell, you now earn less than £881 a month, and in each of the 12 months before that you earned at least the threshold (£881 from 1 April 2026, £846 before). A partner's earnings count towards that, even if they do not claim benefits. The grace period runs from the day after your last day of work or the payday when your earnings fell below the threshold, or from the start of the assessment period in which they fell if you were already claiming, not from the date of your claim. You need to report your last 12 months of earnings when you claim to get it.

From your council, though the scheme differs by nation. GOV.UK tells capped households who need help with rent or a deposit to contact their local council, which can check whether they can get help from the Crisis and Resilience Fund in England or a Discretionary Housing Payment in Scotland or Wales, and it says these schemes are not affected by the benefit cap. In England, Discretionary Housing Payments ended on 31 March 2026 and were replaced by Housing Payments from the Crisis and Resilience Fund. The national guidance lists rent shortfalls caused by the benefit cap among the things Housing Payment funding may be used for. You must be entitled to Universal Credit with housing costs towards rent, or to Housing Benefit, and a payment towards rent should not exceed your Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing element. Councils also receive a monthly DWP data share that identifies Universal Credit claimants whose award is subject to the cap. In Wales, apply to your council for a Discretionary Housing Payment: DWP's factsheet for Wales names the benefit cap among the shortfalls it can help with. In Scotland, mygov.scot says a Discretionary Housing Payment can help if you are affected by the benefit cap, and you apply through your council. These are separate from crisis grants such as the Scottish Welfare Fund and the Discretionary Assistance Fund in Wales. In Northern Ireland, nidirect says a Welfare Supplementary Payment may be available for households with children affected by the cap. If you cannot get one, nidirect says you may be able to apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment to make up for a cut in your Housing Benefit; see Universal Credit in Northern Ireland for how the system differs there. None of these removes the cap from your award, so the exemptions are still worth checking.

DWP publishes these statistics every quarter, in March, June, September and December. The next release, covering households capped to August 2026, is confirmed for 9:30am on 15 December 2026, followed by figures to November 2026 on 23 March 2027 and to February 2027 on 22 June 2027. Expect earlier numbers to move when they do. DWP revises Universal Credit figures for the latest two years to capture late changes to claims, so a quarter's figure can change after it is first published. May 2025 shows how much: it was first published as 123,000 capped households in September 2025, and by the February 2026 release it had been revised to 117,000. The average amount capped moves too, from £238 as first published for February 2026 to £237 in the latest release. That is why the quarterly trend in the figures section is labelled as first published, and why DWP's own comparisons in the May 2026 release (up 53,000 on February 2026, up 47,000 on May 2025) do not match a simple subtraction from the older headlines, because of both revisions and rounding. The full revised series is on DWP's Stat-Xplore tool. We update this page when each new release comes out.