130,000 Families Face £475 Housing Benefit Penalty

More than 130,000 hard up households will suffer an average annual cut of £475 from their housing benefit payments if they are out of work for more than a year – despite the fact that claimants will have already proved that they have been actively looking for a job throughout that period, the National Housing Federation has warned. As part of the Government’s radical overhaul of the benefits’ system, people who claim jobseeker’s allowance for 12 months will have their housing benefit automatically cut by 10% - leaving unemployed households to make up the shortfall in their rent. The University of York, in a report commissioned by the Federation, estimates 133,000 unemployed households in England will be affected by the cut. The figures are released ahead of the publication of the Welfare Reform Bill, which will set out how the government plans to significantly reduce the country’s overall benefits’ bill. Read more on the NHF website.