Housing benefit cap could mean tens of thousands of the most vulnerable citizens losing their homes – Politics and Insights

Last Updated: February 17, 2016By

Grave concerns regarding the impact of proposed housing benefit cuts on the most vulnerable social groups have also arisen. Last month a specialist housing association warned that people under the age of 35 in mental health accommodation face rent shortfalls of almost £200 a week under government plans to cap housing benefit for social housing tenants at Local Housing Allowance rates.

The housing benefit cuts which were announced last Autumn in George Osborne’s budget Statement are claimed to be aimed at bringing housing benefit rates for social housing in line with the sums paid to landlords in the private sector.

But hundreds of planned new sheltered accommodation units have been delayed or scrapped owing to proposed cuts to housing benefit. And several housing associations have said they are no longer financially viable. The National Housing Federation (NHF) has calculated that nearly 2,500 units have so far been scrapped or delayed as sheltered housing providers face losing an average of £68 a week per tenant.

Flats for elderly people and people with learning disabilities are more expensive to build and run because they provide crucial additional support. Concerns raised about the cap on housing benefit will affect society’s poorest and most vulnerable people, such as women fleeing domestic violence, dementia patients, army veterans suffering mental health problems, older and disabled people, because these people will need to find an extra £68 a week.

John Healey MP Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Housing and Planning, has commented further today on the new reports of the effect that the Chancellor’s planned cuts to housing benefit are having on specialist accommodation for elderly and vulnerable people. He said:

“Labour will continue to lead the opposition to these crude cuts. George Osborne must halt these dangerous plans and consult fully with housing providers to safeguard this essential specialist housing.”

Source: Osborne’s housing benefit cap could mean tens of thousands of the most vulnerable citizens losing their homes – Politics and Insights

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No Comments

  1. Barry Davies February 17, 2016 at 7:29 am - Reply

    Slightly off topic but another cut, the amount of money that a nursery can charge is being capped, which at first glance seems to be a good thing, but effectively will lead to the closure of a huge number of nurseries because they will not be able to afford to keep going. It seems that for all its claims of making everyone work it is making it even harder for young mothers to be able to.

  2. amnesiaclinic February 17, 2016 at 1:47 pm - Reply

    Vile.

  3. Malcolm MacINTYRE-READ February 18, 2016 at 6:38 pm - Reply

    But we must admire the elegance of such a simple, cheap and wide-spread means of freeing our nation of the pleb plague.

    Cutting housing benefits reduce both the number of the nasty little pests who can afford accommodation, AND the amount of accommodation they seek, thus further reducing the number of pests in a ‘perpetual motion’ process, until they stop existing.

    And thus it saves more and more money to support the hard-done-by bankers and supportive media moguls as the process proceeds.

    What happens at its conclusion, with something of a shortfall of workers and taxpayers, can be left for the next gov to sort out.

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