THE government has successfully appealed against a ruling that its “cruel” benefit cap unlawfully discriminates against lone parents with children under the age of two.

The Court of Appeal overturned an earlier ruling by a two-to-one majority today, with Sir Brian Leveson saying that the families had been granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Rebekah Carrier, the families’ lawyer, said the reference to the Supreme Court was a recognition of the case’s importance.

Last year, the High Court ruled in favour of four lone parent families that the revised benefit cap, which affects at least 15,000 families and requires parents to work at least 16 hours a week, was unlawfully discriminatory.

At the time of that case, one of the four claimants was pregnant, living with her four-year-old son in a north London refuge after fleeing domestic violence, and would have become subject to the cap when she gave birth on leaving the refuge.

Mr Justice Collins had concluded that the effect of the cap, which limits total household benefits to £20,000 per year (£23,000 in London), was that “real misery is being caused to no good purpose.”

But Sir Patrick Elias, supported by Mr Leveson, ruled that the difficulties affecting lone parents with children under the age of two were not “sufficiently distinct” for an exception to be made for them.

Lord Justice McCombe, however, disagreed, saying that the “significant extra difficulties” Mr Justice Collins found the group to have had as a result of the cap meant that “a failure to make separate provision for this smaller category was [not] justified.”

Ms Carrier said: “The benefit cap has had a catastrophic impact upon vulnerable lone parent families and children across the country.

“Many thousands of children continue to suffer the consequences of poverty caused by the benefit cap, which has severe long-term effects on their health and well-being.”

Housing charity Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said the cap was “a cruel, unnecessary and ineffective way of achieving what the government claims is its aim of getting people into work.”