Housing benefit cuts are on the way

[Tony]

The impact of mode and median calculations is greater than I thought, but it doesn't detract from the fact there is a real story here of a change that will make life significantly more difficult for people on low incomes.

 

So it is a made up story? The story in the OP is untrue.

 

It won't hurt to say it - you've already qualified it, just take the extra step and confirm that it is a made up story.

[Dick]

I think you'll find landlords letting to people on benefits will drop the rent to the maximum benefit level payable, or they will have long vacancy periods.

Tenants who deal directly with the landlord will fare better than those with letting agents. The agents have a an incentive to keep rents up.

[Wildcat]

I think you'll find landlords letting to people on benefits will drop the rent to the maximum benefit level payable, or they will have long vacancy periods.

Tenants who deal directly with the landlord will fare better than those with letting agents. The agents have a an incentive to keep rents up.

 

That might be the case if there was a surplus of housing, but I don't think that is the case. Many people on low pay are already contributing significant amounts of their salary on housing costs, it is likely they will end up paying more as the benefits that supplement their wages drop.

 

Interesting article here, it concludes:

 

What makes these proposals particularly dispiriting is the fact that, at the end of it all, the Housing Benefit cuts may not even achieve the savings the Coalition is aiming at. The Building and Social Housing Foundation hints that these changes lead to increases in other areas of spending, including discretionary housing payment (paid to help families at risk of homelessness) and knock on effects in health, education and criminal justice. The BSHF report cautiously recommends that these areas should be “closely monitored to ensure that the changes to housing benefit are not leading to increased expenditure in these areas.”

 

So we have: yet another instance of the Budget for fairness increasing poverty, cuts that lead to increased spending, a housing policy that will increase homelessness and a policy on mobility that is directly contradicted by another from the same Department just days later.

 

Not terribly impressive.

 

http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/07/housing-benefit-cuts-will-make-people-homeless-and-drive-them-away-from-jobs/#more-8664

[chem1st]

That might be the case if there was a surplus of housing, but I don't think that is the case. Many people on low pay are already contributing significant amounts of their salary on housing costs, it is likely they will end up paying more as the benefits that supplement their wages drop.

 

Interesting article here, it concludes:

 

 

 

http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/07/housing-benefit-cuts-will-make-people-homeless-and-drive-them-away-from-jobs/#more-8664

 

If a local council has finally changed policy to administer LHA instead of HB, it now has to administer the Discretionary Housing payments, bringing the lowest paid LHA claimants back up the level of HB. Meanwhile some, LHA tenants make £15pw, and others have their rent put up to match the LHA rate and maximise profit.

Some councils still issue HB and will probably watse money administering LHA soon. What a joke of a system!

[chem1st]

The level of HB only affects (not controls) part of the rental market: generally, the poorer quality accommodation where landlords can expect to have tenants who rely on HB (in full or inpart). There's also another rental market, aimed at more affluent people and students , where they pay significantly more than HB rates: this part of the rental market isn't really affected by HB levels at all.

 

Rent control was repealed in 1988, since when rent levels have only been limited to "market rates".

 

~It is still a form of control.

[Titanic99]

I see that the implications for Housing Benefit claimants in Sheffield have been released by the DWP.

 

There are various changes coming in, but for anyone who doesn’t want to study the whole document a brief summary is as follows:

 

2011 changes

 

Number of people affected 4580

Range of loss per week in pounds £5-17

 

These changes are to be implemented from April 2011, I suggest anyone who believes they may be affected by this contacts the Housing Benefit service or an Advice Centre to discuss the implications and options available to them.

 

In the meantime thank you Mr Clegg, perhaps you might want to reflect on the impact of these policies to the poorest people in the country and any correlation that may exist to the latest opinion poll that puts your party at around 13%.

 

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/impacts-of-hb-proposals.pdf

[Cyclone]

Maybe if you can find the money for it somewhere Titanic they can carry on wasting 45k a week... Or maybe we all have to accept that the country is a bit short at the moment and do our bit to help. Maybe if those 4500 people all found a job they'd find life a bit easier...

[tempo123]

just hope you dont get what we in whitby have the dreaded "LHA!" (local housing allowance) I', 28 and have a partner 2 years under me and we only get a MAXIMUM of £80 per week, so if our rent raised by a fiver where out on the street :@

[Tony]

Or you could pay it from your own income or resources?

 

Obviously if you unable to through disability etc then the circumstances are different but if you are of working age and ability will an extra fiver a week really see you out of the street?

[tempo123]

Or you could pay it from your own income or resources?

 

Obviously if you unable to through disability etc then the circumstances are different but if you are of working age and ability will an extra fiver a week really see you out of the street?

 

Well I meant in general I can afford £5 a week extra but if theres an OAP on a low pension and hardly recieving any income they would have difficulty paying extra, I mean the place I live in is VERY cheap for whitby, the usual rent for a 1 bed property in Whitby is in excess of £150 a week so now work out, 80 rent from LHA, they then need to find £70 a week top up and if your on benefits (which obviously you would be to claim HB & C/tax) you would need to pay £120 extra out of your JSA which could ruin most peoples living expenses.

 

See where I'm coming from now?