Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his most recent estimate is of the number of working households claiming housing benefit.

Steve Webb: Latest figures show that there are just over 1 million in-work housing benefit claims.

60% Surge in Working Housing Benefit Claimants

More than one million working people are now in receipt of housing benefit, new figures have revealed. DWP analysis shows that 1,058,570 people who were 'in work' claimed HB in May 2014, a 61% increase on May 2010 when the coalition was formed. It means that of the 4.99 million people in receipt of HB in May 2014, 21% were in some form of employment.  Download the figures from the DWP website.

1.66m Housing Benefit Claimants Live In Private Sector

A third of all housing benefit claimants live in the private rented sector, the latest government figures show. The figures showed housing benefit was paid to 3.34 million tenants of social landlords and 1.66 million private tenants in February. The data also showed 3.7 million, or three quarters, of the 5 million claimants were aged under 65. There were 3.92 million single housing benefit claimants, 1.21 million of them with at least one child. Figures also showed that around 500,000 tenants were affected by the bedroom tax. Of these, 397,000 had one spare bedroom and 78,000 had two. Information was unavailable for the remaining 1,600. See the full set of figures on the StatExplore website.

City in Grip of Housing Benefits 'Explosion'

New figures show that Bradford is in the grip of a low pay crisis – with an explosion in the number of working people surviving on housing benefit. The number of claimants in the city who have jobs has leapt by 73 per cent since the last General Election, according to official statistics. Across the district, there are 28,513 people working, but on housing benefit, after similar leaps in Calderdale (up 56 per cent), Kirklees (58 per cent) and Leeds (89 per cent).  There has been growing criticism of the Government’s insistence that getting people off benefits and into work is, by itself, a route out of poverty.  Read more on the Bradford Argus & Telegraph website.

East Midlands Housing Crisis Reaches Breaking Point

The East Midlands was one of the English regions with the lowest number of new homes built during 2012/13, and less than half (49%) of the new homes needed each year are currently being built. This is adding to the chronic housing shortage across the East Midlands, and is pushing house prices and private rents beyond the reach of ordinary people, as local salaries remain comparatively low.

·         Across the East Midlands, 18,753 new households are expected to form each year between 2013 and 2021, but less than half the new homes needed are being built each year

·         The East Midlands is set to see the second largest rise in private rents of any English region by 2020

·         The average house price in the region is expected to rise by more than 25% by 2020

·         The East Midlands has seen a 93% increase in working people claiming housing benefit since 2009.

Read more on the NHF website.

Housing – Parliamentary Debate

Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab): I beg to move,

That this House notes that the Government has failed to tackle the acute housing shortage which is central to the cost of living crisis and over the last three years has presided over the lowest level of new homes built since the 1920s, with home ownership falling, rents at record highs and rising faster than wages and a record five million people in the queue for social housing; further notes that net housing supply under this Government has fallen to its lowest level since records began, and that affordable housing supply dropped in the last year by 26 per cent, homes built for social rent dropped to a 20-year low, while there has been a 104 per cent increase in in-work housing benefit claimants since 2009; believes that the Government should take action to tackle the housing shortage; and calls on the Government to boost housing supply by reforming the development industry and introducing measures to tackle landbanking, bringing forward plans to deliver a new generation of New Towns and Garden Cities and giving local authorities a new right to grow to deliver the homes their communities need.

Read more of this debate on Hansard.

Workers Claiming Housing Benefit Up 86% As Rents Soar

There has been an 86% increase in workers claiming housing benefit in the last three years as private rents across England soar, according to a new report.  The National Housing Federation’s (NHF) Home Truths report warns that the number of working housing benefit claimants, currently 903,440 of the 5.03 million caseload (as of May 2012), is rising by 10,000 more people every month.  It found the future of the country’s housing market is looking even bleaker forecasting a sharp rise in private rental and house prices from 2015 as a result of the failure to tackle the under-supply of housing. Rents, it warns, have risen by 37% in the last five years and are set to soar a further 35% over the next six years, while house prices – which are predicted to fall modestly into 2013 – are forecast to grow between 5-6% from 2015 to 2017. Download a copy of the report from the NHF website.