"This cap is not simply targeted at wealthy families living in large houses," he said. It will damage those who have to pay high rents because often that rent has increased substantially in the course of their occupancy of that house. The victory was welcomed by campaigners. Enver Solomon, policy director at the Children's Society said: "The Lords have stood up to the Government and sent a clear message in support of children up and down the country. The Children's Society is delighted that the Lords have seen sense today and excluded child benefit when calculating the benefit cap. Children should not be held responsible and penalised for the employment circumstances of their parents. Child benefit is a non-means tested benefit paid to working and non-working families. It's a benefit all households with children are entitled to and is there to help with the cost of having children. If the intention of the benefit cap is to promote fairness, it is totally unfair that a small family with a household income of £80,000 a year receive it, yet a large family with a benefit income of £26,000 are excluded. The Government must not ignore the fact that the Lords have spoken out to defend the plight of some of the country's most disadvantaged children. During the debate, Lord Freud said: "Like other welfare benefits, child benefit is provided by the state and funded by taxpayers and therefore we believe it is right it is taken into account along with other state benefits when applying the cap. The effect of excluding child benefit would simply be that families on child benefit would have an income higher than average earnings - there would be no upper limit to the amount of benefit a household could receive as that would clearly depend on the number of children. A DWP spokesman said after the votes: "We are very disappointed by this decision and it clearly flies in the face of public opinion. There has to be a limit on the amount of money benefit claimants can receive. We think that limit is set at a fair rate of £26k - the equivalent to someone earning £35,000 before tax, a salary that many working families would be happy to receive. If you take child benefit out of the cap - it will simply become ineffective, failing the very principles of our reforms, which is to bring fairness back into our welfare system while ensuring that support goes to those who need it. He added: "We are determined our reforms will be implemented in full and we will take this back to the House of Commons to reverse tonight's decision."