Hidden in Clause 68 of the Welfare Reform Bill are proposals that will have a profound impact on housing in this country.
The Clause itself is deliberately vague, talking of ‘liabilities’ and ‘rent officer determinations’. It is only by close examination of parliamentary questions and references in the emergency budget that it becomes clear that Clause 68 will be used to introduce the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as the means by which Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is adjusted from 2013.
Much has been made of the impact that switching to CPI will have on benefits such as disability living allowance and job seekers allowance, which until this month were calculated using the more relevant Retail Price Index. But less recognised is the unique impact that linking to CPI will have on Local Housing Allowance.
Currently supporting over a million households to live in the private rented sector, LHA is a specific benefit to cover a specific cost – the roof over people’s heads. For this reason, it is linked not to RPI or any other fixed measure of inflation, but to the cost of local rents to ensure that the housing support people receive is based on the housing costs they actually pay.
Removing this link means that from 2013 housing support will be adjusted based on the changing cost of a random basket of consumer goods like washing machines and the cost of an average meal out – pretty much everything apart from the real cost of rents.
Between 1997 and 2007, average rents increased by 70%, while the CPI rose by just 20%, illustrating just how quickly housing costs will outstrip LHA under the new system. Over time, the amount people receive will cover less and less of their housing costs.
Shelter joined up with the Chartered Institute of Housing to measure the impact this will have. Our research showed that by 2023, just ten years after the change comes in, 34% of local authorities outside of London will be unaffordable for people on LHA. Areas worst affected are concentrated in the East of England, East Midlands and the South West where rents have been rising fastest over recent years. In effect, claimants will find themselves priced out of huge swathes of the country.
What’s more, further analysis shows a pattern between the areas with the highest proportion of claimants in work and the highest rates of employment. Meanwhile, regions that will remain affordable in 2023 – the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humber – are those with above average rates of economic inactivity and unemployment. In other words, people claiming LHA will be forced to live in places with fewer employment opportunities.
These findings are a serious challenge to the government’s key aim in reforming the welfare system – getting more people back into work – and are surely grounds for an urgent rethink before it’s too late. Shelter is urging MPs and Peers to support amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill that will ensure the rate of LHA remains linked to housing costs and accurately reflects rent rises.
But there is also a wider point to be made about the way these changes are being introduced. If Clause 68 is unclear on its intentions to reduce housing benefit, Clause 11 of the same Bill gives carte blanche to the Secretary of State to bring in further changes to the way housing support is calculated through secondary legislation. This opens the door for more cuts to housing benefit to be introduced without proper parliamentary scrutiny. This should be a serious cause for concern for anyone committed to accountability and the democratic process.
Showing posts with label housing benefit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housing benefit. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Tory slash and burn economics are hurting the most deprived
A financial education charity has said tax and benefit changes coming into force today will leave households £200 worse off. Credit Action, a financial education charity, has calculated they will leave households £200 a year worse off.
According to their research reductions to what parents could claim in childcare costs through the working tax credit alone would leave some families worse off by up to £1,560 a year.
Other changes due to come into force today include a £1,000 rise in the threshold at which people start paying income tax - this will mean 500,000 people will be lifted out of paying income tax altogether, a freeze in the inheritance tax threshold, an extra 5% on stamp duty for homes worth more than £1m and restrictions on tax relief on pension contributions for those on more than £150,000 a year.
The government is also cutting childcare support through the working tax credit. The resolution foundation says this will cost 450,000 people, which includes almost 290,000 lone parents, an average of £436 a year. For some families with two or more children it could be up to £1560 lost. This little-noticed change will have a huge impact on hundreds of thousands of families, but particularly mothers who work part time for low pay. Cuts to childcare support make no sense if it simply makes it harder for parents to work – as the office for budget responsibility has warned – and so ends up costing the taxpayer more.
The biggest losers will be those earning more than £35,000, with someone on £50,000 seeing their take-home pay reduced by £500 a year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The results of Osborne’s Budget are really quite frightening, especially for the poorer sector of our society. And what are the government doing to help them? Nothing – it seems they are oblivious to the demise of the average man and woman in this country. Understandable really, given that over 20 of the Cabinet are millionaires and have never really experienced hardship.
This bunch of elites and toffs are totally unaware of the economic realities facing society -
1. The VAT rise will cost families with children £450 this year alone
2. Tax credits and child benefit will be frozen from April
3. Petrol prices are soaring with the VAT rise adding 3p per litre
4. Economic growth has stalled
5. Unemployment is rising again – now at a 17 year high
6. Nearly 1 million young people are now out of work
But fear not, for the government have a strategy to help the less well off. Called the child poverty strategy, it aims to offer genuine opportunities to the most deprived people in Britain. Many disagree with the principles outlined in it pages and argue it is a bungling attempt to solve a critical problem.
Responding to the publication yesterday of the Government’s child poverty ‘strategy’ and social mobility strategy, the Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham, said:
“A child poverty ‘strategy’ which does not set out how poverty numbers will fall, and by when, is not a strategy and is incredibly disappointing and surprising given the Prime Minister’s stated commitment on tackling poverty.
“The ‘strategy’ is unlawful because it has not kept to the requirements laid down in law by Parliament. An expert Child Poverty Commission should have been set up and consulted in the strategy’s preparation. This failure shows in the poor quality of the ‘strategy’ itself.
“It is absolutely staggering to see in the 'strategy' cuts to housing benefit and support for sick and disabled families that will make poor families poorer. On top of benefit cuts, wage stagnation and rising prices for basics like food, fuel and clothes mean there is an immediate crisis for families. Urgently addressing the financial crisis for families should be the foundation for the strategy.
“Requirements on social inclusion and the progress Ministers expect to make on their targets by 2014 are missing. We are astonished to see a consultation on scrapping child poverty duties for local government promoted in the ‘strategy’, instead of being clearly ruled out.
“The ‘strategy’ starts from a false premise, suggesting that the last decade made no progress and did not address worklessness. In fact there’s been a downward trend for child poverty in workless households, but an upward trend for in-work poverty, which is now the larger problem.
“Although we finally have a document that tells us what the Government plans to do, it appears to do very little. Taken together with the social mobility strategy it is hard to see how they will have any traction on the major problem of child poverty we face. Britain could have the same low rates of child poverty as other European countries, but to achieve this we need a strategy that learns the lessons of what successful countries on child poverty have got right and addresses the structural unfairness in our own economy.”
On top of all this, on April 1st housing workers and their tenants faced the start of a two-year package of reforms to housing benefit that will have far-reaching effects on families and communities across the whole of the UK.
The new housing benefit caps for people in the private rented sector and the move to cut the number of properties people can choose from will have an immediate impact on families looking to find a new rented home.
There is also an important change to the levels of housing benefit that people in both the social and private sectors will receive if they have adult children at home.
From 1 April, tenants sharing their home with other adults need to collect more money from them to contribute towards the rent, or make up the difference from their own money. This will be an incentive to tenants to encourage their children to leave home and could also lead to greater risks of rent arrears.
Sarah Webb, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), said:
"People are going to have their options about where they can live cut significantly and it is likely that demand for the properties that remain available will be squeezed further.
"Government has argued that rents will fall as a result of the measures. There is no evidence at this time to suggest that landlords will respond to the changes by cutting their rents. Indeed, the latest surveys from across the sector suggest that rents are going up as demand outstrips supply and the number of new homes being built continues to be half of the level needed."
The average rent in England and Wales edged ahead by 0.2% to £684 a month in February 2011, to leave the typical cost of being a tenant 3.9% higher than in February last year, according to letting agency network LSL Property Services.
Ms Webb added: "Where tenants face significant shortfalls the choice is going to be stark, find money from somewhere else or move. Given these are people on low incomes their ability to save by cutting back on other items is severely limited.
"Ultimately, this will mean low-income families moving from the communities where they have jobs, where their children are in schools, where they having strong social networks."
The full measures which have now come into force are:
1. There will no longer be a five bedroom Local Housing Allowance rate. Weekly Local Housing rates will not exceed £250 for a one bedroom property; £290 for a two bedroom property; £340 for a three bedroom property; £400 for a four bedroom property.
2. The £15 excess will be removed as soon as the Local Authority reviews a claim. Claimants will no longer be able to pocket any excess money after their rent is paid.
3. Non-dependants living in households of Housing Benefit claimants will see their deduction increases take effect from April 2011.
4. Disabled people with a long-term health condition who need overnight care or live with someone with similar needs, may now be able to claim Housing Benefit for a private rented property which has an additional bedroom for a non-resident carer.
Bearing all this in mind, how can the government legitimately talk about increasing fairness, supporting those who are less privileged and increasing the chances for the poor? Once again it seems the Tories are full of lies and dishonesty just so they can hang onto power.
According to their research reductions to what parents could claim in childcare costs through the working tax credit alone would leave some families worse off by up to £1,560 a year.
Other changes due to come into force today include a £1,000 rise in the threshold at which people start paying income tax - this will mean 500,000 people will be lifted out of paying income tax altogether, a freeze in the inheritance tax threshold, an extra 5% on stamp duty for homes worth more than £1m and restrictions on tax relief on pension contributions for those on more than £150,000 a year.
The government is also cutting childcare support through the working tax credit. The resolution foundation says this will cost 450,000 people, which includes almost 290,000 lone parents, an average of £436 a year. For some families with two or more children it could be up to £1560 lost. This little-noticed change will have a huge impact on hundreds of thousands of families, but particularly mothers who work part time for low pay. Cuts to childcare support make no sense if it simply makes it harder for parents to work – as the office for budget responsibility has warned – and so ends up costing the taxpayer more.
The biggest losers will be those earning more than £35,000, with someone on £50,000 seeing their take-home pay reduced by £500 a year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The results of Osborne’s Budget are really quite frightening, especially for the poorer sector of our society. And what are the government doing to help them? Nothing – it seems they are oblivious to the demise of the average man and woman in this country. Understandable really, given that over 20 of the Cabinet are millionaires and have never really experienced hardship.
This bunch of elites and toffs are totally unaware of the economic realities facing society -
1. The VAT rise will cost families with children £450 this year alone
2. Tax credits and child benefit will be frozen from April
3. Petrol prices are soaring with the VAT rise adding 3p per litre
4. Economic growth has stalled
5. Unemployment is rising again – now at a 17 year high
6. Nearly 1 million young people are now out of work
But fear not, for the government have a strategy to help the less well off. Called the child poverty strategy, it aims to offer genuine opportunities to the most deprived people in Britain. Many disagree with the principles outlined in it pages and argue it is a bungling attempt to solve a critical problem.
Responding to the publication yesterday of the Government’s child poverty ‘strategy’ and social mobility strategy, the Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham, said:
“A child poverty ‘strategy’ which does not set out how poverty numbers will fall, and by when, is not a strategy and is incredibly disappointing and surprising given the Prime Minister’s stated commitment on tackling poverty.
“The ‘strategy’ is unlawful because it has not kept to the requirements laid down in law by Parliament. An expert Child Poverty Commission should have been set up and consulted in the strategy’s preparation. This failure shows in the poor quality of the ‘strategy’ itself.
“It is absolutely staggering to see in the 'strategy' cuts to housing benefit and support for sick and disabled families that will make poor families poorer. On top of benefit cuts, wage stagnation and rising prices for basics like food, fuel and clothes mean there is an immediate crisis for families. Urgently addressing the financial crisis for families should be the foundation for the strategy.
“Requirements on social inclusion and the progress Ministers expect to make on their targets by 2014 are missing. We are astonished to see a consultation on scrapping child poverty duties for local government promoted in the ‘strategy’, instead of being clearly ruled out.
“The ‘strategy’ starts from a false premise, suggesting that the last decade made no progress and did not address worklessness. In fact there’s been a downward trend for child poverty in workless households, but an upward trend for in-work poverty, which is now the larger problem.
“Although we finally have a document that tells us what the Government plans to do, it appears to do very little. Taken together with the social mobility strategy it is hard to see how they will have any traction on the major problem of child poverty we face. Britain could have the same low rates of child poverty as other European countries, but to achieve this we need a strategy that learns the lessons of what successful countries on child poverty have got right and addresses the structural unfairness in our own economy.”
On top of all this, on April 1st housing workers and their tenants faced the start of a two-year package of reforms to housing benefit that will have far-reaching effects on families and communities across the whole of the UK.
The new housing benefit caps for people in the private rented sector and the move to cut the number of properties people can choose from will have an immediate impact on families looking to find a new rented home.
There is also an important change to the levels of housing benefit that people in both the social and private sectors will receive if they have adult children at home.
From 1 April, tenants sharing their home with other adults need to collect more money from them to contribute towards the rent, or make up the difference from their own money. This will be an incentive to tenants to encourage their children to leave home and could also lead to greater risks of rent arrears.
Sarah Webb, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), said:
"People are going to have their options about where they can live cut significantly and it is likely that demand for the properties that remain available will be squeezed further.
"Government has argued that rents will fall as a result of the measures. There is no evidence at this time to suggest that landlords will respond to the changes by cutting their rents. Indeed, the latest surveys from across the sector suggest that rents are going up as demand outstrips supply and the number of new homes being built continues to be half of the level needed."
The average rent in England and Wales edged ahead by 0.2% to £684 a month in February 2011, to leave the typical cost of being a tenant 3.9% higher than in February last year, according to letting agency network LSL Property Services.
Ms Webb added: "Where tenants face significant shortfalls the choice is going to be stark, find money from somewhere else or move. Given these are people on low incomes their ability to save by cutting back on other items is severely limited.
"Ultimately, this will mean low-income families moving from the communities where they have jobs, where their children are in schools, where they having strong social networks."
The full measures which have now come into force are:
1. There will no longer be a five bedroom Local Housing Allowance rate. Weekly Local Housing rates will not exceed £250 for a one bedroom property; £290 for a two bedroom property; £340 for a three bedroom property; £400 for a four bedroom property.
2. The £15 excess will be removed as soon as the Local Authority reviews a claim. Claimants will no longer be able to pocket any excess money after their rent is paid.
3. Non-dependants living in households of Housing Benefit claimants will see their deduction increases take effect from April 2011.
4. Disabled people with a long-term health condition who need overnight care or live with someone with similar needs, may now be able to claim Housing Benefit for a private rented property which has an additional bedroom for a non-resident carer.
Bearing all this in mind, how can the government legitimately talk about increasing fairness, supporting those who are less privileged and increasing the chances for the poor? Once again it seems the Tories are full of lies and dishonesty just so they can hang onto power.
Friday, 1 April 2011
National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts
The following article is a reprint from the benefitclaimantsfightback website.
The 3rd National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts has been called for April 14th 2011.
Millions are set to be affected by savage cuts to housing, disability, sickness and welfare benefits. People with disabilities, illness, the unemployed, single parents, carers the low waged, part time students, volunteers, homeless people and college students are all likely to see a devastating drop in disposable income with many slipping even further below the poverty line.
The poorest and most vulnerable are being asked to pay for the mistakes and extravagances of the richest. Meanwhile poverty pimps like Atos Origin and A4e are set to rake in hundreds of millions on government contracts to bully and intimidate people from claiming the pittance handed out in benefit payments. Many disabled people have threatened suicide if these cuts are allowed to continue. Some have tragically already carried out that threat.
The first two days of protest against benefit cuts have seen demonstrations, meetings, unemployed discos, public pantomimes and occupations in cities across the UK. Atos Origin have been forced to close offices, protesters have gathered inside and outside workfare sharks A4e and demonstrations have taken place from Downing Street to local town centres such as Lydney and Crawley.
This time we have two months to organise for the biggest day yet. We call on all claimants, as groups or individuals, to organise and take action around the country on April 14th.
If you are planning an event in your town or city please add details in the comments below to be added to this page and the facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164277070288955
You can also send details to notowelfarecuts@yahoo.co.uk
If you would like to see action locally, set up a group, event page or ask below. We will do out best to promote and co-ordinate all activity.
We are fighting for our homes, our livelihoods, our very survival. It’s time to show these public school parasites and their poverty pimp collaborators we mean business.
Actions/events organised so far:
Brighton
Thursday April 14th 2-5pm
Churchill Square Brighton
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210782635605158
Bristol
Thursday April 14 · 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Benefit Cuts Hurt Protest – 3rd National Day of Protest
Government Buildings, Flowers Hill, Bristol, BS4 5LA
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=199413500079998
Leeds
Thursday, April 14 · 10:30am – 2:00pm
Meeting @ Leeds Train Station 10am before moving to picket ATOS from 10:30 for an hour then move onto A4e/BEST for a couple of hours. The last picket was a great success and we hope to have another good day. Bring banners, flags etc.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155593464493862&
London
Thursday, April 14 – 2pm
Protest Outside The Daily Mail – Stop the Defamation – Stop the Lies
Daily Mail Headquarters, Young Street (off Kensington High Street), London W8 5TT
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161556473898500&
Protest Outside Westminster City Hall & Mass Food Give Away!
Thursday, April 14 · 5:00pm – 9:00pm
Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6QP
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=186039361439862
Poole
Outside the Jobcentre at noon. Everyone welcome!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161332900587762
Everywhere
National Troll A Tory Day 3 and Rat On A Rat!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173026406078054
Supported by:
o Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign
o Brighton Benefits Campaign
o Cardiff’s Unemployed Daytime Disco
o Carer Watch
o Carer Watch fb page
o Crippen – Disabled Cartoonist
o Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
o Disabled People Against Cuts
o Dundee Unemployed Workers
o Free London Listings
o Goldsmiths in Occupation
o Haringey Solidarity Group
o Ipswich Unemployed Action
0 Islington Poverty Action
o Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group
o Lancaster and Morecambe Against the Cuts
o London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP)
o London Foodbank
o Mad Pride
o Medway Against Cuts
0 Mental Health Resistance Network
o Norfolk Community Action Group
o Nottingham Claimants’ Union
o Nuneaton Against Benefit Cuts
o Oxford Save Our Services
o Squattastic
o Tyneside Claimants Union
o Welfare Action Hackney
o Welfare Rights 4 u (UK)
o Work Programme & Flexible New Deal Scandal
o World Homeless Day
The 3rd National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts has been called for April 14th 2011.
Millions are set to be affected by savage cuts to housing, disability, sickness and welfare benefits. People with disabilities, illness, the unemployed, single parents, carers the low waged, part time students, volunteers, homeless people and college students are all likely to see a devastating drop in disposable income with many slipping even further below the poverty line.
The poorest and most vulnerable are being asked to pay for the mistakes and extravagances of the richest. Meanwhile poverty pimps like Atos Origin and A4e are set to rake in hundreds of millions on government contracts to bully and intimidate people from claiming the pittance handed out in benefit payments. Many disabled people have threatened suicide if these cuts are allowed to continue. Some have tragically already carried out that threat.
The first two days of protest against benefit cuts have seen demonstrations, meetings, unemployed discos, public pantomimes and occupations in cities across the UK. Atos Origin have been forced to close offices, protesters have gathered inside and outside workfare sharks A4e and demonstrations have taken place from Downing Street to local town centres such as Lydney and Crawley.
This time we have two months to organise for the biggest day yet. We call on all claimants, as groups or individuals, to organise and take action around the country on April 14th.
If you are planning an event in your town or city please add details in the comments below to be added to this page and the facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164277070288955
You can also send details to notowelfarecuts@yahoo.co.uk
If you would like to see action locally, set up a group, event page or ask below. We will do out best to promote and co-ordinate all activity.
We are fighting for our homes, our livelihoods, our very survival. It’s time to show these public school parasites and their poverty pimp collaborators we mean business.
Actions/events organised so far:
Brighton
Thursday April 14th 2-5pm
Churchill Square Brighton
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210782635605158
Bristol
Thursday April 14 · 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Benefit Cuts Hurt Protest – 3rd National Day of Protest
Government Buildings, Flowers Hill, Bristol, BS4 5LA
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=199413500079998
Leeds
Thursday, April 14 · 10:30am – 2:00pm
Meeting @ Leeds Train Station 10am before moving to picket ATOS from 10:30 for an hour then move onto A4e/BEST for a couple of hours. The last picket was a great success and we hope to have another good day. Bring banners, flags etc.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155593464493862&
London
Thursday, April 14 – 2pm
Protest Outside The Daily Mail – Stop the Defamation – Stop the Lies
Daily Mail Headquarters, Young Street (off Kensington High Street), London W8 5TT
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161556473898500&
Protest Outside Westminster City Hall & Mass Food Give Away!
Thursday, April 14 · 5:00pm – 9:00pm
Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6QP
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=186039361439862
Poole
Outside the Jobcentre at noon. Everyone welcome!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161332900587762
Everywhere
National Troll A Tory Day 3 and Rat On A Rat!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173026406078054
Supported by:
o Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign
o Brighton Benefits Campaign
o Cardiff’s Unemployed Daytime Disco
o Carer Watch
o Carer Watch fb page
o Crippen – Disabled Cartoonist
o Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
o Disabled People Against Cuts
o Dundee Unemployed Workers
o Free London Listings
o Goldsmiths in Occupation
o Haringey Solidarity Group
o Ipswich Unemployed Action
0 Islington Poverty Action
o Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group
o Lancaster and Morecambe Against the Cuts
o London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP)
o London Foodbank
o Mad Pride
o Medway Against Cuts
0 Mental Health Resistance Network
o Norfolk Community Action Group
o Nottingham Claimants’ Union
o Nuneaton Against Benefit Cuts
o Oxford Save Our Services
o Squattastic
o Tyneside Claimants Union
o Welfare Action Hackney
o Welfare Rights 4 u (UK)
o Work Programme & Flexible New Deal Scandal
o World Homeless Day
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