Review To Assess Impact of Benefit Cuts

The government will set up an independent review of the effects of housing benefit cuts, the welfare reform minister has announced. Speaking at a House of Lords debate last night (24 January), Lord Freud said a review would consider the effects of the cuts, which begin in April, presenting interim findings in the summer of 2012. He was responding to a motion tabled by independent peer Lord Best demanding such a review. The review will also recommend whether further monitoring of the effects of the cuts should take place, Lord Freud said. He criticised ‘scaremongering’ over the numbers of people likely to be made homeless by a shortfall between their housing benefit payments and their rents. ‘Some of the estimates of the number of people that will be made homeless are quite frankly ridiculous,’ he told the chamber. Read more on Inside Housing.