New homelessness act fails to address root causes, charities say

an article by Patrick Butler, Social Policy Editor, published in the Guardian


There are fears that the act does not address the underlying factors driving homelessness. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex/Shutterstock

Cash-strapped councils in England now have legal duty to assist all eligible homeless citizens

Spiralling rents, welfare reforms and council funding cuts will undermine the impact of the most significant new homelessness legislation for 40 years, charities have said.

There is consensus among campaigners and local authorities that the Homelessness Reduction Act, which came into force on Tuesday and imposes legal duties on English councils to take positive steps to prevent and relieve homelessness, is a welcome and positive move.

However, there are fears that the act imposes costly new duties on councils at a time when they face drastic funding cuts, and does nothing to confront the underlying factors driving homelessness such as housing benefit cuts, lack of affordable housing and insecure private sector tenancies.

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The welfare system is already stacked against the young

via The Staggers by Jon Stone

The decision to remove housing benefit from the under-25s is just another item on the list of ways our welfare system is penalising the young.

David Cameron wants to take housing benefit away from under-25s, arguing the move would save £2bn a year. Housing benefit is mainly claimed by those in work, with 93 per cent of new claimants and 80 per cent of total recipients in a job, so the plan would largely be a redistribution from young low-wage workers to elsewhere.

Thirteen major charities have attacked the proposal, arguing it would take a vital safety net away from young people. What is rarely mentioned is that the welfare state is already stacked against young people in other areas, with the housing benefit plan simply another item on a list.

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The article provides information on:

• Working tax credit
• National Minimum Wage
• Work Programme
• Jobseekers’ Allowance

and concludes:

Defenders of the set-up might argue that young people are less likely to have a family or other commitments and so have lower costs. But the welfare system already takes these things into account through situational payments like child benefit. Moreover, it would be difficult to imagine such restrictions imposed solely on the basis of age at the top end. It’s not clear that further sanctions on the young is consistent with the Government’s claim to want to share the pain of austerity equally, when they already get significantly less out of the system.

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Unintended consequences: Local Housing Allowance meets the Right to Buy

an article by Nigel Sprigings and Duncan H. Smith (University of Glasgow and Renfrewshire Council) published in People, Place & Policy Online Volume 6 Number 2 (June 2012)

Abstract

Recent rapid expansion of the Private Rented Sector (PRS) is recognised but the extensive involvement of ex-local authority stock in this new PRS is not.

This paper uses existing literature to outline the commodification processes through which Right to Buy (RTB) housing enters the PRS.

Other published research is used to estimate a likely range of council to PRS tenure change over 30 years of RTB in the UK.

Then using detailed data matching, we present one local authority example at individual dwelling level across the whole stock to establish the true scale of this transfer from council housing to private rental.

Finally, to stimulate debate about the revenue cost of this switch of rental tenures we speculate on the additional annual cost of Housing Benefit support to this ex-RTB stock given that the PRS is invariably more expensive than council renting for equivalent dwellings. This may well be over £1bn per year. We conclude that UK government’s plans to expand the RTB scheme will simply increase revenue costs year on year for no discernable social or housing supply benefit.

Full text (PDF 18pp)

Hazel’s comment:
Just from reading the abstract that makes complete sense. I don’t have to like it, though.

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Support for Housing Benefit claimants to meet any rent shortfall

These products have been produced to assist local authorities [in England and Wales] with their support for Housing Benefit claimants affected by the introduction of the size criteria for social sector tenants. They may also be useful with the support you provide to other Housing Benefit claimants.

They are model documents consisting of suggested text to be used as you see appropriate. Any products produced will need to meet the relevant local authority brand guidelines.

Model documents
Effect [sic] additional income will have on Housing Benefit (35KB) RTF
Claiming Discretionary Housing Payments (31KB) RTF
What to do if you fall into rent arrears (42KB) RTF
Renting out your spare room (33KB) RTF

Also available in Welsh at the DWP website.

Hazel’s comment:
It’s not the answer to the problem and there seems to be nothing available to help claimants to know what they might be entitled to but some advisers will find this stuff useful, I hope.

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