England's top 15 eviction 'hotspots' are all in London, according to research published today by Shelter.
Figures released by the housing charity show that in the 12 months to September 2012, 198,470 households have been threatened with losing their home, leaving one in every 115 households at risk of becoming homeless. This equates to cities the size of Liverpool or Bristol being evicted or repossessed.
Despite being left out of chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement, it appears the Government is still thinking about cutting the automatic right for under-25s to claim housing benefit.
Work and Pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said in Parliament this week that there is still a discussion and debate going on in Government but that "more work is required". The Liberal Democrats have said they would oppose any such move.
Housing benefit payments could be paid direct to private landlords to encourage longer term tenancies and stable rents for families in the private sector, following a Labour party policy review.
Under the coalition government's welfare reforms, housing benefit payments will be paid to tenants under the universal credit system which will begin to be rolled out next year, and marks a significant departure from the current arrangement in which many tenants receiving housing benefits have it paid directly to landlords.
Protestors descended upon an Islington Starbucks coffee shop on Saturday to highlight the plight of those affected by the Government's housing benefit cuts.
Private tenants and others held a 'housewarming party' at the store on Upper Street as part of a nationwide day of protests called by action group UK Uncut.
Labour looks set to oppose the welfare cuts announced in the autumn statement.
Chancellor George Osborne announced last week that increases in local housing allowance rates, used to calculate housing benefit for private renters, will rise at 1 per cent instead of in line with inflation for two years from April. Rises in other working age benefits, including jobseeker’s allowance and tax credits, will also be capped at 1 per cent.
Some private landlords with buy-to-let mortgages are being prevented by their lenders from letting to people on benefits.
BM Solutions, the buy-to-let brand of state-backed Lloyds Banking Group, is one lender, and Accord, a Yorkshire Building Society brand, is another.
The welfare budget is set to come under further assault today as chancellor George Osborne delivers his Autumn Statement.
As part of the statement, the Government is expected to provide an update on its economic plans based on the latest forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Over a billion pounds worth of Housing Benefit expenditure was lost to fraud and official error between April 2011 and March 2012, new figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have revealed.
The DWP's statistics show that total overpayments due to fraud and error across the entire benefits system was £3.4 billion, or 2.1% of the total spend of £159.2 billion.
Brighton and Hove's housing services are facing a crisis, with the council claiming that the city has been "singled-out" for austerity.
Councillor Phelim Mac Cafferty, Brighton and Hove City Council's deputy leader, has said that a "perfect storm" of housing and council tax benefit changes have meant "that many vulnerable people aren’t going to be able to get the help they need to keep a roof over their heads".
Worried councils are reporting huge backlogs in their benefits departments due to problems with a new IT system vital to the government’s flagship benefit reforms.
Councils have seen backlogs of thousands of files, in some cases upwards of 10,000, build up under the automated transfers to local authority systems project, or ATLAS.