Will benefits cap change attitudes to work?

A government-imposed cap on many benefit payments nationwide is beginning in four London boroughs.

Couples and lone parents in Haringey, Enfield, Croydon and Bromley will not receive more than £500 a week while a £350 limit applies to single people.

The cap is set to be imposed across England, Scotland and Wales between July and September.

Jobseeker's allowance, income support, child and housing benefit count towards it, but not disability benefits.

Camilla Cavendish, associate editor at the Sunday Times, told the Today programme's Sarah Montague that there are "a generation of people who are genuinely depressed... partly because of the warped incentives of the benefits system and it's going to be very hard to get those people back into work."

Hilary Cottam, founder of Participle, a social enterprise which works on designing and implementing future models of the welfare state, said that "I don't think this will work... we need to start with job creation."

"Most people in Britain are not couch potatoes, they want to work", she argued and went on to say that "85% of jobs in the UK are not advertised".

Broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday 15 April 2013.