Thousands Of Teens 'Face Homelessness' After Tory Benefit Changes Delayed By Six Months

There are fears that teenagers could end up on the streets after the Tory government delayed a crucial benefits shake-up. Ministers vowed in March to restore housing benefit for people aged 18 to 21 - a U-turn on a policy they announced one year earlier. But the U-turn has still not taken effect - and will not do so until at least September. Youngsters now face six months in the lurch after the DWP failed to push through legal changes before MPs' summer holiday. Read more on the Liverpool Echo website.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/thousands-teens-face-homelessness-after-14976438

Bedroom Tax 'Breaches Human Rights Of Vulnerable People'

The so-called “bedroom tax” breaches the human rights of vulnerable people, Britain's most senior judge has ruled. But Lord Thomas, the Lord Chief Justice, and two other senior judges face claims of “usurping the role of Parliament” over the ruling hailed by campaigners against the Government’s benefits changes as a major victory. The judges, sitting at the Court of Appeal in London, found that the policy discriminated against a victim of domestic violence and the family of a severely disabled boy because of the way it is administered. Campaigners hailed the judgment as a vindication for claims that the policy was having a “catastrophic impact” on poor families.  The case is now set to go to the Supreme Court. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Government Urged To Improve Welfare Reform Strategy

Sweeping reforms to the benefit system have been hindered by failures to anticipate problems and over-reliance on assumptions, the government’s spending watchdog has said. The National Audit Office (NAO) said in a report today that the DWP should learn lessons from mistakes it has made implementing reforms to welfare, such as the long-overdue introduction of universal credit. Criticising the DWP’s strategy, the NAO said the department did not ‘have sufficient understanding of its portfolio of programmes or overall capacity’ and begun several large reforms without understanding its ability to manage the programmes. The NAO warned that the department relied on ‘uncertain and insufficiently challenged assumptions’ which had contributed to civil servants failing to anticipate risks. Download a copy of the report - Welfare reform – lessons learned – from the NAO website. 

IDS to Accelerate Benefit Reforms to Stop Labour Reversing Them

The Government’s benefit reforms will be accelerated in the months before the election to stop Labour reversing them if the party wins the general election. Iain Duncan Smith said he would ensure that there would be a "step change" in the roll-out of Universal Credit in the first three months of the year. The Work and Pensions secretary said: “There is more we need to do - and we have to step up a gear in 2015.” Benefits reform will be one of the key battlegrounds at May’s general election. The suggestion that Mr Duncan Smith wants to accelerate his reforms will infuriate Labour.  Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Iain Duncan Smith to Signal Further Welfare Crackdown

Iain Duncan Smith is to signal a further crackdown on welfare in a speech suggesting that changes to the benefit system have lowered unemployment. The work and pensions secretary is set to tell an audience in London that ‘the number of households where nobody had ever worked doubled’ under Labour and that welfare reform is ‘changing our country for the better’. ‘Fixing society at the same time as the economy, matching a firm economic settlement to a firm social settlement; and in so doing putting this country on a path to a more productive, more dynamic, and ultimately a more contented, future,’ he will say. Mr Duncan Smith will claim that immigration to the United Kingdom has been a ‘supply and demand issue’. Read more on Inside Housing.

Life In Limbo: What It’s Like To Be One Of Britain’s Hidden Homeless

The threat of people losing their home if they rent is at its highest level in more than a decade, official figures from the Ministry of Justice show. Benefit changes, including the introduction of the bedroom tax, and an increase in sanctions, such as housing benefit being suspended, are driving up the number being threatened with eviction. 31,000 people in social housing received a notice to seek possession at the start of this year. That’s 525 a day.  “Housing benefit is a safety net and for many it’s all that stands between them and homelessness,” says Leslie Morphy, chief executive of Crisis. “Homelessness has been on the rise for the last three years. Rough sleeping in particular has risen steeply and by a massive 75 per cent in London. Harsh cuts to housing benefits and a lack of affordable housing have taken a heavy toll.” Read more on the New Statesman website.

Council Report on Poverty 'No Cover Up'

The leader of Kent County Council (KCC) has defended his decision to rewrite a report that links poverty in the county with benefit changes. Paul Carter said the KCC report, released in November, was published without his knowledge and he was unhappy with some of its conclusions. "We are not trying to cover up anything," said Conservative Mr Carter. "The officer that wrote it was a junior officer and didn't draw in my view appropriate conclusions from the evidence." The first report said increases in homelessness, a rise in people in temporary accommodation, increased use of food banks and rising crime in some areas could be linked to the government's welfare changes. The new one states other factors including the state of the economy, the cost of living and housing issues, are also to blame. Read more on the BBC website.

Freud: 'Why Should We Hurry With Universal Credit?'

The rollout of universal credit for the most vulnerable people will take ‘as much time as it takes’, a minister in charge of welfare reform has said. At a Local Government Association event, Lord David Freud shrugged off criticism that the changes to UK benefits were behind schedule and warned against implementing them in a ‘hurry’. He told an audience of councillors, who had gathered to examine the local impact of welfare reform: ‘Frankly, why should we hurry with the most vulnerable? My own view is we should take as much time as it takes to get these people safely into the new system.’  Read more on Inside Housing.

73% of Social Landlord Staff Say Their Tenants in Arrears

Nearly three quarters of housing association staff say their tenants are falling behind on rent this year, with over a third reporting the main cause is the bedroom tax. In a Unison survey, Community and Voluntary Services in the Age of Austerity, 73 per cent of housing association staff report their tenants were in arrears this year. Thirty five per cent reported the top reason was the bedroom tax, with the next common reasons being complex benefit changes, the rising cost of living and lack of employment. The poll of 756 housing association workers between July and August showed half of staff had seen an increase in tenants being evicted or forced to move out due to financial pressures. Download a copy of the report from the Unison website.

Single Parents Bear Brunt of Benefits Changes, Charities Warn

Single parents with already stretched finances are bearing the brunt of government changes to benefits, charities have warned, when many are already struggling with huge increases to household bills. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that single-parent households make up a quarter of the total number of households in England and Wales. Calculations from the charity Gingerbread show that on average, single parents working on the minimum wage will lose just over £200 a year under Universal Credit compared with the current system. Read more on the Observer website.

Benefit Reforms Will Work, Says Leading Think Tank

Iain Duncan Smith’s plan to persuade millions of people that working is more lucrative than living on benefits could succeed, Britain’s leading economic think tank has said.  Reforms will widen the gap between wages and the income of people living on handouts, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said. It added that tax increases, benefit cuts and Universal Credit ‘will strengthen people’s incentives to work’.   The think tank said the complex changes will give the workless reason to seek a job and encourage those in jobs to work harder for promotions and pay rises.  Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Human Cost of Welfare Cuts

The first detailed study into how benefits changes are hitting Manchester has revealed the ‘human cost’ of swingeing welfare cuts.  New research warns of overcrowding, new social ghettos, soaring levels of debt and mental illness – with minorities bearing the brunt.  The analysis finds minority groups – including the disabled, women and certain ethnic groups – are being hit disproportionately hard by the policies. Around two thirds of the 575 households affected by the benefits cap are ethnic minorities. It warns the cap will force people into cramped, overcrowded conditions. Read more on the Manchester Evening News website.

Benefit Cuts Hit Thousands of City Residents

Hard-Up residents are calling Nottingham City Council at a rate of more than one a minute over worries about benefits changes that came into force last month.  The Post can reveal that between April 2 and 16, the council answered 5,300 calls and had 2,854 face-to-face enquiries, meaning it dealt with nearly 750 queries a day.  Compared with the same period last year, the service has received 71 per cent more phone calls.  The council has taken on an extra 14 benefits advisers to its team of 58, for the next 11 weeks, to help cope with the demand. Staff have also been working overtime and have cancelled holidays.  Research shows that Government welfare changes, which include changes to Disability Living Allowance, Child Benefit and the Spare Room Subsidy, or Bedroom Tax, will take £120 million out of Nottingham’s economy.  Read more on the Nottingham Post website.

Huge Rise in Rent Help Applications

More than five times as many people are applying for help to pay their rent since the introduction of new welfare reforms.  Hull City Council has revealed applications to the Discretionary Housing Payments fund has risen from an average of five to 26 a day since changes to benefits came into force last week. Last year, only 25 per cent of people who applied to the scheme were turned down but a lot more are likely to be unsuccessful this time round. If the council were to award 75 per cent of those applying at the current rate of 26 a day, the fund would run out in just a few weeks.  Read more on the Hull Daily Mail website.

Social Housing Tenants Paid £30 to Learn About Money

Derwentside Homes in County Durham is running a free six-week course on budgeting, saving and borrowing, with advice also given about changes to the benefits system that are likely to affect tenants. New tenants who attend will have their rent accounts credited with £30. Those taking part will gain a Level 2 Financial Literacy qualification with the option to go on and take an accredited numeracy qualification. Read more on the Derwentside Homes website.

Majority of Benefit Claimants Concerned About Welfare Reform

Up to 85 percent of benefit claimants are concerned about the introduction of the government's Universal Credit (UC) welfare system because of a widespread lack of awareness over major changes that are happening to the system.  Over two-fifths (43 percent) of people claiming benefits that will be replaced by UC aren’t aware that their benefits will be affected.  And of those who are aware, over three-quarters (77 percent) said they are not confident that they know how or when it could affect their benefits.  Similarly, over a third (35 percent) of people in England currently receiving council tax benefit said they are not aware that they may be required to pay more or all of their council tax from this April. Over two thirds (68 percent) said that they would have to cut back on heating and food if they had to pay more toward their council tax bill. Read more on 24dash.

Committee Attacks Housing Benefit Reforms

The Public Accounts Committee has concluded that the government's housing benefit reforms have not been properly thought through.  Must damning of all, the Committee found that there is a risk that the introduction of direct payments of housing benefit to tenants living in social housing could lead to an increase in rent arrears and evictions. The report reads: "Housing associations are increasing their bad debt provision and concerns are being expressed that homelessness could increase."  The Committee's chair, Margaret Hodge MP, said that the DWP cannot "accurately predict the effects of its housing benefit changes either on individuals or on the housing supply". Download a copy of the report from the Parliament website.

DWP to Publish Early Findings from Direct Payment Projects

Welfare reform minister Lord Freud says the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will be publishing early findings from the direct payment demonstration projects at the end of October.  Early learning from the first month of the project has been:

engaging with and assessing the needs of tenants has taken longer than anticipated

Landlords do not have immediate access to the information needed to assess tenants’ readiness for direct payment

the role of support partners in the project is crucial

there is a general lack of awareness among tenants of wider benefit reforms

developing appropriate safeguards has helped to reassure landlords.

One of the housing associations involved in the demonstration projects revealed payment errors in the first two months of the project had seen tenants go overdrawn; while another said it was stepping up interventions on its project to collect unpaid rent.   Read more on the DWP website.