Housing Benefit Cuts: What's the real truth?

Next autumn, Local Housing Allowance – the money claimants receive towards the cost of their housing – will be brought into line with the bottom third of private sector rents, rather than the bottom half as is the case now.

It is this change, designed to save some £425m a year, compared with the cap's relatively modest £65m savings that will have a seismic effect on the British urban landscape.

Crisis calculates the average claimant in the UK would lose £9 a week, a relatively modest amount to many. "But if you're on a low wage or reliant on Jobseeker's Allowance, it's a huge amount of money," said Helen Williams, assistant director of the National Housing Federation. "It practically leaves them nothing to live on." Even those living in ostensibly less affluent areas will be affected. Crisis estimates claimants in St Helens will be £15 a week worse off.

Read the full story in The Observer (on the Guardian website).

Posted by Birmingham Budget Cuts on 2:15 PM. Filed under national . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0