Figures Suggest Universal Credit Is Driving Homelessness And Evictions

Using Freedom of Information Act laws, Inside Housing has obtained figures about numbers of people presenting to their councils as homeless while claiming Universal Credit or housing benefit – one of the six benefits replaced by the government’s flagship welfare reform programme. Among 42 councils which provided data, nearly 5,000 households have declared themselves homeless while claiming Universal Credit since April – out of 168,600 total Universal Credit households across these areas. That equates to around one in 34 households on Universal Credit becoming homeless. By comparison, a separate set of 31 local authorities said 3,600 households claiming housing benefit presented as homeless over the same period, out of 283,500 in total – approximately one in 79. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/figures-suggest-universal-credit-is-driving-homelessness-and-evictions-59468