Cameron Makes A Great Case For Abolishing Bedroom Tax

The final government report into the removal of the spare room subsidy, the policy known as the bedroom tax, was released on the last day of parliamentary business in 2015. It proved beyond a shadow of a doubt what everyone, from David Orr to Sajid Javid has known all along: By the criteria against which the policy was drawn up, it is an unmitigated disaster.  Let's put aside the Prime Minister's new, shiny and bellicose statement of intent to literally destroy social housing by tearing it down and replacing it with something else. Frankly there are no policy details in the sink-estate clearance proposal, despite him setting out his slightly rabid ideological stall. All we can really be sure of is that either the physical regeneration will never come to pass, or it will leave in its wake a lot of “unintended consequences” that will be widely publicised but never heard. Read more on 24dash.

‘Unintended’ Housing Benefit Cuts Hit Tenants

Councils are cutting off housing benefit payments to tenants who are entitled to receive them, as an unintended consequence of sanctions applied to other benefits. Jobseeker’s allowance and employment support allowance claimants can have sanctions applied to their claims if they miss appointments or fail to do enough to find work. But many are also having their housing benefit cut, because they are unaware that they need to tell councils their financial circumstances have changed. Local authorities are stopping claims as a result. Charities warn they are dealing with a rising number of housing benefit problems as the number of JSA and ESA sanctions soar - because many recipients don’t realise the reductions could affect their claim. Read more on Inside Housing.

Delays to Lord Freud’s Pledge

Civil servants are encountering serious complications fulfilling Lord Freud’s pledge to protect vulnerable and disabled people from the ‘unintended consequences’ of welfare reform. Some residents living in supported accommodation are exempt from benefit changes, including the bedroom tax and the benefit cap. But this doesn’t apply to accommodation where the landlord is not the provider of care. The welfare reform minister wrote to housing bodies in April reassuring them he would protect these non-exempt tenants and landlords from ‘unintended consequences’ of the benefit changes ‘through a change to the definition or other means’ and would make proposals ‘at the earliest opportunity’. However, sources said that at a meeting between sector representatives and civil servants, it was confirmed that progress has been much ‘slower than expected’. Read more on Inside Housing.