The Housing Market Isn’t Helping People to Make Ends Meet

In recent years there has been a vast increase in low-paid, part time and insecure work, which means that getting a job does not necessarily mean getting out of poverty. These changes have had an impact on housing, with the number of Housing Benefit claimants in work doubling between 2009 and 2014. But housing isn’t helping people cope with the changed labour market. Paying housing costs pushes three million people into poverty every year and the number of people in poverty in the private rented sector, the most expensive form of housing, has doubled in the last decade. Traditionally, social housing has played an important role in reducing the degree of poverty experienced by low-income groups, but in recent years things have changed. Rents for most new lettings are now linked directly to the dysfunctional private rented housing market this group can’t afford to access.  Read more on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.