MPs Question Housing Benefit Savings

A cross-party group of MPs has questioned whether the government’s housing benefit reforms will deliver the intended savings. In a report the Work and Pensions Select Committee says savings in the benefit bill may be partly offset by increased demands on local authority resources. Although the committee accepts the government’s desire to cut benefit costs, it challenges its assumption that the reforms will not increase homelessness, stating some witnesses told its inquiry ‘an increase in evictions and homelessness was inevitable’. It also says it is unclear whether people who have their benefits cut will be able to find cheaper accommodation, and if landlords will be prepared to cut rents, as the government has suggested. ‘It is too early to determine if this will happen in reality which is why it is hard to say exactly what the impact of these changes will be,’ it states. Read more on Inside Housing.