Benefit Reform Is ‘Anti-Family’

Government proposals for housing benefit reform would break the prime minister’s pledge that all national policies should be ‘family-friendly’, leading housing organisations have warned. David Cameron announced that ministers will review domestic policies to ensure they pass a ‘family test’ as part of its response to the riots in England. Helen Williams, assistant director of the National Housing Federation, said plans to cut the housing benefit of social tenants deemed to be under-occupying their properties from 2013 will force 670,000 households into debt and should fail the test. She said: ‘It will hit families who want their adult children to come to stay and it will also hit foster families because foster children are not counted as part of the household for the purpose of housing benefit.’ Read more on the NHF website.