Concern over Plan to Withdraw Housing Benefit from Under-25s

Housing charities and campaign groups have been outraged by an idea floated by Downing Street to strip housing benefits from under-25s and make them move in with "mum and dad" as a way to "make work pay" and save the UK from growing welfare expenditure.  The proposal was announced just before a speech in which David Cameron praised recent changes to the benefits system as "the most radical, long-term reform" in the UK for a generation. A Downing Street source said that there were many young people who are "low paid are living with their parents and can't afford to move out" and questioned if it was fair to allow unemployed young people to be able to live independently supported by housing benefits.  Currently there are just over 380,000 housing benefit claimants under 25; 57% of those have children and a proportion are in limited or low-paying work. It is still unclear if young parents would be affected by the proposal. Historically, under-25s have been given a significantly reduced "shared room" rate of housing benefit, as they are expected to share a flat or a house with other adults.  After an announcement in the comprehensive spending review in autumn 2010, the reduced rate has been extended to all aged under 35.  Read the rest of this blog post on the Guardian website.