No more 'languishing on the dole' after welfare reforms, says David Cameron "Past governments have talked about reform, while watching the benefits bill sky rocket and generations languish on the dole and dependency," he said. This Government is delivering it. Our new law will mark the end of the culture that said a life on benefits was an acceptable alternative to work. Mr Cameron said working people could rest assured that they would be better off than those who spend their life on benefits. "We've stood up against the abuse that left taxpayers footing the bills for people on £30,000 or even £50,000 a year in benefits," he said. It's a fair principle - a family out of work on benefits shouldn't be paid more than the average family in work. Around 70,000 households are receiving more than £26,000 a year in benefits, which is the equivalent of a taxable salary of £35,000. However, many children's charities and the Church of England bishops are concerned the proposed cap will unfairly hurt children of large families. Government figures show that two thirds of families who will lose out on benefits have three or more children, while one in 10 has six or more children. But ministers insist that around three million families will actually be better-off under a simpler system introduced by the reforms. This will see a raft of different benefits replaced by a single "universal credit." The reforms will take some time to implement, but by October 2017, approximately 12 to 13 million tax credit and benefit claims will translate into eight million universal credit payments. In further reforms, the Government is setting housing benefit at a maximum of £400 a week. Families in areas with expensive rental prices for housing will be forced to move to cheaper areas under the changes. The Government says this will stop "the scandal of families on benefits living in houses that hard working families could never afford." However, critics, such as the National Housing Federation, believe more than 20,000 families could lose their homes as a result of the cap. The Coalition made some concessions saying a "grace period" of nine months would apply to anyone who lost their job through no fault of their own before they were subject to the cap.