Half A Million More People Claiming Housing Benefit Under Coalition

[rollover]

Britain’s failure to build affordable homes has led to a soaring housing-benefit bill – with half a million more people now relying on state handouts to pay their rent than when the coalition came to power, a damning new analysis reveals. Spending on housing benefit has risen by £650m a year on average since 2009-10, and at a faster rate than during Labour’s 13 years in power, a new analysis of official Department for Work and Pensions figures finds. The annual housing benefit bill is expected to hit £25bn by 2017.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/14/housing-benefit-coalition-people-claiming

[frederico]

Oh dear, unexpected consequences again.

[@contradevian]

Oh dear, unexpected consequences again.

I'd say entirely expected consequences!

[Dorkins]

At least 25% of private rentals in London needs housing benefit (LHA) in order to pay their rent. Imagine how prices (of both houses and rents) would fall if this landlord subsidy was removed.

Unbelievably it's actually 25% of all households in London which are in receipt of housing benefit, not just private rentals.

[Eddie_George]

A Tory majority would remove these subsidies as they're a champion of free-market capitalism.

[doahh]

The government also has a nice flanking manouvre in surprise for people when Universal Credit comes into play. The more people who are claiming housing benefit the more lazy people there are to whip and sanction. The sanctions will save that £650 million but leave the people rather unhappy!

The governments policy seems to be to make people dependant on the state so that they can dictate what they must do under the threat of coercion by homelessness and hunger. It isn't right to force people into a bad situation and then punish them. Isn't this almost identical to Thatchers demolision of northern industry, leaving people without the income to survive and forcing state dependency, but this time without the option of secure long term sickness claims so that people can feed themselves?

Now, where on the internet can I find a plan to show me how to build a gallows? I think I will paint it blue, red, yellow and purple but I will paint the lever that opens the trapdoor green.

Edited March 15, 2015 by doahh

[long time lurking]

I'd say entirely expected consequences!

But ,but .but, no one saw it coming

[MARTINX9]

And millions more people in the country too - often on low incomes who cannot afford market rents on their wages.

Fine if people want to ignore the factors driving the need for more housing - more people being a rather significant one!

[winkie]

Make work pay....must be a joke then.

Housing benefit is there to serve the haves not the havenots......those that can invest and borrow not those that can't.....the system is broke, and none of the political parties have a way or the will to fix it....they certainly don't have the power to......just more of the same....add it to the public d3bt pile.

Edited March 15, 2015 by winkie

[stormymonday_2011]

Why not nationalise all the rental properties, then sell them at knock down prices to the current renters under new form of 'right to buy' thereby rolling the clock back to the 1980s and re-starting the Housing Ponzi cycle from the beginning. Rinse and repeat until eternity.

[byron78]

This is exactly what I said would happen in the late 80s down the local Conservative club when Maggie sold all the council houses off.

Housing Benefit was always about transferring state wealth into private hands.

Nothing else.

It's working perfectly as far as the mad Tharcherites in this government are concerned.

A transfer of wealth to the wealthy where the poor take most of the flak for receiving said state handout (before they hand it over)?

Marvelous.

[Assume The Opposite]

Fat cat landlords must be licking their lips at the free money. My generation has been left behind. There is little social housing and private housing is far poorer quality compared to members of my family who can still get social. I've heard housing is at least 30% overvalued?

Roll on the HPC.

It's funny how the house prices of the past few decades track the expansion of the money supply due to the financial de-regulation.

End the ponzi scheme and let's see the real market value.

[winkie]

Five million people on housing benefit....many of them working, UK PLC has a housing crisis..... Employers know rents will be subsidised, so can pay less, landlords and lenders new employer are the tax payers, except tax receipts are falling.....can only borrow more to pay everybody.

Low wages less taxes, high rents less consumption, more debt less savings.....where are we going?....what a total utter mess.

[durhamborn]

This is the best resource to find the LHA rates for any postcode.Simply choose the local authority then once your on it simply enter a postcode.Youl get the rates paid out in that area.After the election id expect the government to expand the single room rate from as now up to 35 to maybe up to 50,or at least 40.

http://www.uk-infobroker.net/mapping/LHA-CountyDurham.html

[Solitaire]

This is the best resource to find the LHA rates for any postcode.Simply choose the local authority then once your on it simply enter a postcode.Youl get the rates paid out in that area.After the election id expect the government to expand the single room rate from as now up to 35 to maybe up to 50,or at least 40.

http://www.uk-infobroker.net/mapping/LHA-CountyDurham.html

Just had a look at the single shared accomodation rate in my area and it's £5 a week less than it was a couple of years ago.

[byron78]

This is the best resource to find the LHA rates for any postcode.Simply choose the local authority then once your on it simply enter a postcode.Youl get the rates paid out in that area.After the election id expect the government to expand the single room rate from as now up to 35 to maybe up to 50,or at least 40.

http://www.uk-infobroker.net/mapping/LHA-CountyDurham.html

The Tories might do that, but if it happens it won't be to save public funds - it'll be to help landlords make more money.

Most of the Tory councillors in my area are slum (or HMO) landlords, and they're absolutely raking it in.

If you could force more people into less space for more money then they'd love that - but only if current immigration levels can be maintained (or better yet increased).

[Guest eight]

This is the best resource to find the LHA rates for any postcode.Simply choose the local authority then once your on it simply enter a postcode.Youl get the rates paid out in that area.After the election id expect the government to expand the single room rate from as now up to 35 to maybe up to 50,or at least 40.

http://www.uk-infobroker.net/mapping/LHA-CountyDurham.html

£599.99 a month for our humble abode. I might retire to the far east.

[SarahBell]

Five million people on housing benefit....

Is that all?

[winkie]

Is that all?

You are right must be more than that.....reason being there are not enough earned earnings to pay the price of housing rented or mortgaged.....the higher the price of land and building gets the more help people will need to provide a roof over their heads......soon all property will be held in fewer hands, the hands that end up making the most out of housing subsidies.

[Snugglybear]

Is that all?

According to the DWP, at August 2014, the total number of people claiming Housing Benefit was 4.88 million. (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistical-summaries)

So nearer 5 million than 4 million at that point.

It would be interesting to know what that means in terms of the proportion of households claiming HB. However, I can't find a way to do it.

There are, according to the ONS, 26.4 million households in the UK. The ONS definition of a household is "one person living alone, or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address who share cooking facilities and share a living room, sitting room or dining area". However, in the HMO rules, a household is a single person or a group of related people, and there can be more than one household even when they share a kitchen. So in an HMO you might have 5 people claiming HB and contributing to the 4.88 million HB figure, but only contributing 1 household to the 26.4 million of the ONS figure.