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Nearly 50,000 single parents are being hit by the cruel Tory benefit cap, official figures show today.

Campaigners were left furious as it emerged the vast majority of the 66,000 people affected are caring for kids alone.

DWP rules force parents to work 16 hours a week to avoid the cap - leaving children "impoverished for circumstances outside their parents’ control".

Single parents lost a Court of Appeal fight against the cap in a major blow in March.

Now new figures show that of all the people hit by the cap in May 2018, 47,000 of them were single-parent households. At least 33,000 had a child under five.

Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: " The benefit cap is a cruel and misguided policy that has affected more than 560,000 children so far.

(Image: PA)

"The government claims that the main aim of the benefit cap is to incentivise work.

"But half of lone parents affected have a child under the age of three and are not expected to look for work.

"This means that the benefit cap is both cruel and ineffective in supporting people into work.​"

Labour Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Margaret Greenwood branded the figures “shocking”.

"The government needs to take a long hard look at the impact of its policies on child poverty,” she added.

(Image: Ian Cooper / Liverpool Echo)

Chartered Institute of Housing chief executive Terrie Alafat said: “Today’s figures demonstrate just how fundamentally unfair the cap is.

“It is disproportionately punishing people who will find it most difficult to escape by finding work."

Lib Dem MP Stephen Lloyd, the party's welfare spokesman, added: "This dreadful news is exactly what I’ve been predicting.

"The government seem intent on driving our most vulnerable people into grinding poverty.

"For so many single parents and, consequently, their children to be hit so hard by the Tories benefits cap is cruel beyond belief.

"A bad business!"

(Image: Alamy)

Pioneered by welfare-slashing ex-Chancellor George Osborne, the cap limited total benefits to £26,000 per year.

It was then cut in November 2016 to £20,000 (£23,000 in London), quadrupling the number of families affected.

Critics say it causes social cleansing because rents in inner-city areas are so high.

But the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) boasted today's figures show a "welfare reform success" because they "indicate" 49,000 formerly capped people have moved into work.

Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey said: "The benefit cap ensures fairness in the system by asking people on benefits to make the same financial choices as people in work."