Violent Offenders Forced Into Shared Accommodation by Welfare Changes

There is, emerging evidence of potentially harmful effect of the welfare reforms for which no extra safeguards have yet been pledged. This new worry stems from issues raised in a recent real life case. John is a 30-year old homeless man with a history of violent behaviour including a string of convictions for actual and grievous bodily harm. The advice agency helping John knew that he qualified for housing benefit but not social housing.  A change in the shared accommodation rate housing benefit (SAR) rules had effectively closed off the most obvious option for someone with John's history: a self-contained privately rented flat paid for by housing benefit. The rule change, which came into effect in January, raised the age at which welfare will cover the cost of such accommodation from 25 to 35.  This left his advisors with one practical but worrying problem: to help John to rent a room in a shared home with housemates who are oblivious to his past and the risk he poses – or to leave him on the streets. "The support worker who asked me for advice was in a dilemma," the council officer told me about John's case. "[John's] only option was the private sector but he was dangerous. The only other option was to leave him to sleep rough".  Read more on the Guardian website.