Housing Benefit Changes... Interesting developments.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Cost-cutting welfare reforms that will result in social housing tenants being moved into smaller properties have run into a major obstacle: an acute shortage of alternative homes.

Many housing associations warn they have a dearth of suitable homes to rehouse the near 100,000 tenants who have received letters informing them that they may have to switch to smaller properties.

Iain Sim, chief executive of Coast & Country, one of the largest housing companies in the north-east of England, said it had 2,500 "under-occupiers" but only 16 spare one-bedroom homes on its books.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/17/social-housing-tenants-face-poverty

Oooops.

Turns out you can't fix a housing shortage by shuffling people around between houses after all....

Who knew?

And in other shocking news.....

Housing benefit cuts are driving thousands of Londoners to seek work, a study reveals today.

More than a third of new tenants affected by housing benefit caps tried to find a job to meet a shortfall in their rent. Another 20 per cent looked for a better job.

One in seven have increased their hours at work and seven per cent sought a second or third job to make ends meet.

The independent analysis by academics at Sheffield Hallam University suggests that fears that thousands of London families could be forced to move because of the new limits of £400 a week for a four-bedroom and £250 for a one-bedroom property may be unfounded.

Lord Freud said: “Today’s research gives us an early insight into what is really happening and it shows the many scare stories about the effects of housing benefit reform are simply not materialising.”

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/housing-benefit-cuts-drive-a-rise-in-jobseekers-7854599.html

Claimants working for a living.... Where will it end? :eek:

Although in fairness it also notes....

More than half of new claimants were seeing a shortfall in benefit to meet their rent and as a result were spending less on non-essentials, borrowing money or digging into savings.

No sign of spending less on rent then. Although this can't be good for Sky subscriptions....

Still, maybe landlords are capitulating en-masse and just eating the rent difference?

More than a third of landlords in London have also taken action to evict, not renew or end tenancies because of the housing benefit reforms.

Or maybe not.

Interesting times......

grizzly1911

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/17/social-housing-tenants-face-poverty

Oooops.

Turns out you can't fix a housing shortage by shuffling people around between houses after all....

Who knew?

Interesting times......

Not really surprising otherwise it would be more prevalent by choice.

Economics would dictate that if you can't afford to run a large property you don't stay there out of choice.

ukcarper

I thought that a large proportion of the any extra money you earn would be knocked of your housing benefit.

　

the_flying_pig

quick, buy a house (or ten)!!!

wotsthat

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Claimants working for a living.... Where will it end? :eek:

If benefit cuts are encouraging people to work then this is great news.

As well as, hopefully, reducing the taxpayer burden the benefits claimants will also be benefiting from the non-financial benefits of work such as new friends, improved self esteem, and reduced risk of mental health problems.

MacMickster

Surely, if landlords find that they have invested in the wrong type of house, unless they drop their rents they will end up in the position where there aren't enough tenants looking for their type of property, so will suffer more, and longer voids.

Eventually there will be a downward correction to rents, but it will be an uncomfortable time for those receiving housing benefit in the interim.

paulmapp8306

ukcarper wrote: »

I thought that a large proportion of the any extra money you earn would be knocked of your housing benefit.

　

Not necessarily. If you used to get £600/month HB based on earnings, they are noww capped at £450. You could earn up to £150 extra - where you benefits would be re-assessed and you'd be entitled to £450. Thats £150 less than you used to get - but the same as you woould get once the cap is in place.

ukcarper

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

Not necessarily. If you used to get £600/month HB based on earnings, they are noww capped at £450. You could earn up to £150 extra - where you benefits would be re-assessed and you'd be entitled to £450. Thats £150 less than you used to get - but the same as you woould get once the cap is in place.

I don’t think it works that way you gradually lose benefit as you earn more so you would not get to keep all of the extra you earn until you earn enough not to get benefits.

paulmapp8306

Well my sister works in HB - and explained it that way to me.

Yes you do gradually lose benefits as you earn more, but the thing with the cap - is that you may be assessed as being entitled to a larger sum than the cap - but are paid the lower "Capped" sum. As you increase your wages, your assessment comes down BUT you wont see a reduction in benefit until your assessment comes down to the cap level. At that point any further income will affect what you get.

ukcarper

So what you are saying is the cap is not a cap I just put figures into entitled to websites and benefits went down as earnings went up.

　

paulmapp8306

Its a cap - as in thats the MOST you can get for HB. If your entitlement is more than the cap (under current rules) then the cap is applied (as I understand it).

For instance - IF you are currently getting £550/month HB on earnings of £12k (totally made up numbers - just for illustration) you would now only get £450. however - at present if your earnings went up to say £18k your HB would reduce to say £450/month - under the cap you would STILL get the £450. So it is possible to up your earnings yet have no impact on HB.

This is ONLY for HB though at present. Other benefits you may get WOULD reduce with earnings - but not by the ammount your earnings go up (its graduated - no point working 10 hours more, for an extra £60 if you then loose £60 from benefits. you'd actually loose £20-£30).

When we get universal credit - it will be different again. In that case £26k/year is the Max you can get - and it wont matter if thats HB, JSA, invalidity etc - you will be assessed on your earnings, and your benefits will make you up to that sum at least.

What that will do is address the ballance on HB for renters and no benefits (housing wise) for owners. If you loose your job - and have no income, your benefits will be £26k (im pretty sure thats the figure being talked about) whether you need to spend some of that on rent, or a mortgage for your accommodation wont matter.

Also - the current benefits calculators do not reflect the proposed single credit, nor the HB cap (at least id didnt very recently). Even those working in benefits dont really know how all this will work yet.