The amount of additional money the Government has made available for households facing hardship as a result of brutal cuts to housing benefit would only stretch to £1.30 a month each in the first year, rising to £5.19 a month each in 2012/13. Tough new rules on housing benefit payments due to be phased in next year will leave 642,160 households £39 worse off on average a month, leaving many unable to meet the cost of higher rent charges along with their other basic household necessities. To minimise the effect of the cuts, ministers have announced an extra £130 million for local authorities’ discretionary housing payment over the next four years. This is in addition to the existing allocation of £20 million a year which local authorities already use to top up payments for households such as disabled people and those on low incomes whose current housing benefit entitlements do not cover their rent. But even if the new cash was distributed equally amongst all the households affected by the cutbacks coming in next year, it would equate to only 30p a week for each one in the first year and £1.20 per week from 2012/13 and would have little or no meaningful impact. Read more on the NHF website.
No comments:
Post a Comment