Ministers' claims that the housing benefit system has created "an expectation that you could live almost anywhere" have been undermined by a prominent piece of research for the Department for Work and Pensions which says there is no evidence to support the idea. In a paper released by the DWP, academics from Birmingham University found that people on benefits paid the same in rent as their working peers. "The results so far tend to suggest that the levels of rents of the properties of [housing benefit] recipients match the overall average quite closely." Bruce Walker of the university's centre for urban and regional studies told the Guardian there was "no strong or significant evidence" to back up ministers' claims. People on housing benefit "cannot live anywhere, because they receive a rent that is set at the median or half local market rates. They also don't receive the maximum amount because of deductions and there is evidence that landlords prefer not to have you if you are a housing benefit claimant. What was striking was that 40% of low income working families actually paid more in rent than they would have received in housing benefit." Karen Buck, Labour MP for Westminster North, said the findings "give the lie to the constantly repeated claims that all housing benefit claimants are able and indeed encouraged by the system to seek better homes than those low income workers.” Read more on The Guardian website.
No comments:
Post a Comment