HAs ‘Better Than Job Centres’ For Jobs

New research reveals training for work programmes run by housing associations are regarded as better than job centres for finding employment. Researchers from Brunel University London studied HA programmes. Unlike Job Centre Plus, they found housing associations have good staff availability, give friendly, personalised, constructive advice and ‘offer hope’. Housing associations are taking on welfare service provision as new state regulation demands they spur tenants towards independent living and away from welfare dependence. Aimed at hard-to-reach groups such as long-term unemployed and young people not in education, employment of training (NEETs), Housing association employment services have a variety of funders including government. Read more on 24housing.

Benefits Crackdown ‘Will Hit Single Parents Hardest’

Single parents would be the biggest losers under David Cameron’s plan to deny under-25s an automatic right to state benefits. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is worried that parents could be affected by proposals to restrict housing benefit for the more than one million “Neets” – young people not in education, employment or training – under a strategy announced by the Prime Minister.  Official figures show that 166,000 (46 per cent) of those under 25 who claim housing benefit are lone parents. So are 8,000 (2 per cent) of those claiming jobseeker’s allowance, which could also be limited under the “learn or earn” strategy being drawn up by the Downing Street Policy Unit. Read more on the Housing News website.

Crisis and Shelter Urge Rethink On Housing Benefit Cut

Plans to penalise low income families for having young adult job seekers living at home could drive up youth homelessness, Crisis and Shelter warn. Government proposals will see £800 a year cut from housing benefit paid to parents or guardians where there is a young person under 25 seeking work. Current rules make a deduction only if the young person is in employment. The move comes at a time when over 600,000 young people are unemployed and not in education and when rising housing costs are forcing more to remain in the family home. The latest figures from the ONS show one in three men under 34 now lives at home, along with one in six women.  Read more on the Crisis website.

Young Homeless People Need a Helping Hand, Not More Hurdles to Clear

It's a sad but simple truth that one third of people accepted by councils for help with homelessness in the first half of 2012 were young people. What's more, the single biggest cause of homelessness among the under-25s is relationship breakdown with family or friends.  Iain Duncan Smith's proposal to limit housing benefit for this very group risks damaging the future prospects of those who most need our help. Becoming independent, with your own home and job, is tough for many of today's young who face rising rents and high unemployment rates. For those with no family home, such as those leaving care, or no option but to move out, realising your potential can be even harder. According to research we undertook last year (which we are in the process of repeating), the majority of young people who are seen by homeless charities are already in a disadvantaged position. Many are not in any form of education, employment or training, nearly half are in financial difficulty and one in four has already slept rough. There is clear evidence that the longer someone stays without a home, the more likely they are to develop complex problems and become trapped in a cycle of deprivation from which it can be difficult to escape.  Read more on the Guardian website.