Homeless Charity Earns Agency £5.5m

A letting agency has been paid more than £5.5m in housing benefit after its owner set up a charity to help the homeless. Investing Solutions received those benefit payments over the past two years by finding properties for single homeless men. The charity, Fresh Start Housing, finds clients from London homeless charities. Neither the charity nor the company act illegally. Investing Solutions said "the bulk" of their rents get passed to private landlords, while Fresh Start said they referred clients to both Investing Solutions and private landlords. The letting agent makes money by putting several unrelated people in one house and charging housing benefit for each person, rather than the property. Therefore, the total benefit payout is higher than the rent fee passed on to the property's landlord. Read more on the BBC website.