STOURBRIDGE MP Margot James has backed Government plans to cap benefits at £26k a year.

In a question to the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (June 15), Margot told the House “thousands of people in my constituency work hard for less than £26k a year” before urging opposition MPs to vote for the Welfare Reform Bill which will introduce the cap on benefits.

The cap, set at the level of the average income of a working family, will stop a household receiving more than £26k a year in benefits.

It will not apply to war widows and widowers, families who work, or where a family member has a disability.

Ministers at the Department of Work and Pensions are also considering exemptions for other people in exceptional circumstances.

The Prime Minister said Margot was “entirely right” to encourage other MPs to vote for this cap, saying “we want to make sure that if people do the right thing we will be on their side; and it cannot be right for some families to get over £26k a year in benefits, that is paid for by people who are working hard and paying their taxes.”

The Conservative MP said: “It is not fair that, currently, 50,000 families receive more in benefits than the average family gets from going out to work. “The people in my constituency who work extremely hard to support their families on less than £26k a year should not see their taxes going to people on benefits amounting to much more than that.

“When you take into account that working families have to pay tax and National Insurance on their income while people receiving benefits do not, the level of the cap is actually very generous.”