Statistics published by the Department of Work and Pensions today announced that the number of people claiming housing benefit as of May 2013 was 5,072,264. The number claiming the benefit in April was 5,062,172, meaning there were 10,092 new claimants over the period of a month.
Year on year, housing benefit claims rose by 40,526, as in May 2012 the number of people claiming was 5,031,738.
Social landlords are raising their rents for benefit tenants above those charged by private landlords. The difference is a gap of 14%, says new data.
Produced by the organisers of the annual Resi conference, they say it has been extrapolated from the Government’s own figures and shows that contrary to widespread condemnation, private landlords who take tenants on Local Housing Allowance are not the ones pushing up the housing benefits bill.
Housing groups and charities have been left ‘deeply disappointed’ after the High Court dismissed a legal challenge to the government’s bedroom tax.
David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said the policy is unworkable, while Campbell Robb, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said the ruling was ‘devastating news’.
Tenants on benefits are showing increasing signs of desperation as they search for private landlords who will accept them.
There are the first signs of a possible tipping point in the rental market, with LSL today reporting that the number of tenants is dropping as first-time buyer numbers rise.
A Communities and Local Government select committee report out today on the private rented sector said moving people out of London was the only way councils could mitigate the impact of benefit caps.
Cuts to benefits had left local authorities with too few properties in their boroughs where they could afford to house claimants, the MPs found.
Chancellor George Osborne is considering lowering the benefits cap by a further £6,000, one of his aides confirmed today.
The Treasury will base a decision on whether to make the further cut depending on the effectiveness of the current benefit cap, which began its national roll-out on Monday, in reducing the welfare bill.
Hounslow Council has launched a new incentive for landlords to help local families at risk of becoming homeless.
The scheme includes offering up to £1,000 for landlords to house tenants needing a home, and grants of up to £15,000 for improvement works.
The government's total weekly benefit cap has begun rolling out across Britain.
Single parents and couples aged 16 to 24 will now only be able to claim a total of £500 a week in benefits, whilst people living alone will be capped at £350.
The “national roll-out” of Universal Credit will now only see the new system running at a handful of JobCentres across the UK this year, ministers confirmed.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, insisted that Universal Credit remains on track and will fully operational by 2017. A more gradual timetable means the reform will be delivered “safely,” he said.