London Evening Standard/London

Nearly nine out of 10 Londoners support the government’s benefit cap and many believe it should be even lower than the current £26,000 a year figure, a new opinion poll revealed yesterday.

The poll, which also finds majority support for limiting child benefit for larger families and widespread concern about fraud, shows that 50% of residents in the capital think that the existing cap, which equates to £500 a week, is justified.

Another 37% believe the figure is too high with a fifth calling for a £20,000-a-year limit on welfare payments.

The findings mean that 87% of Londoners are in favour of limiting overall benefit payments, despite campaigners’ protests that they will increase poverty and unjustly hit claimants left workless or in low paid jobs through no fault of their own.

They come amid reports that Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is preparing to implement further welfare cuts of up to £3bn as part of the government’s spending review for 2015-16.

The new findings, compiled by the polling company Opinion Matters, suggest that while the benefit cap is popular, opinion is more divided on other elements of the welfare reforms.

A question on overall support for the reforms, which include changes to housing, disability and other benefits, shows, for example, that although 69% of Londoners are in favour, a third of these people think that the cuts have already gone too far.

Another 20% are opposed to the existing reductions and argue that savings should be made in other areas of public spending.

Similarly, while 49% of those questioned said that welfare cuts would not increase poverty, 43% took the opposite stance. There are stronger views on fraud, however, with 61% saying it is a major problem.

Nik Harta, a director of Opinion Matters, said the results appeared to confirm ministerial claims that their reform programme was popular with the public.

“Our poll shows clear support for the government’s welfare cuts and for the benefit cap, but there is also significant concern that the cuts will increase poverty in Britain,” he said.