Councils forced to switch spending to help people hit by benefit reforms
ACRE highlighted the disproportionate impact current benefit changes will have on rural communities. This article indicates how much housing there is for people to transit to-losing their “spare” bedroom. Interestingly at a national level it is less than 25%. I suspect it will considerably less still in rural areas. I hope local authority Hinterland readers ae bracing themselves. This story tells us: “Under a quarter of the 1.18m English workless households affected by housing benefit cuts will be able to mitigate the impact of the reforms by moving to a cheaper property or finding a job, a Local Government Association survey has found. The report also raises doubts about the effectiveness of Iain Duncan Smith’s universal credit scheme, which aims to ensure claimants are always better off working, by suggesting it was “unlikely to significantly increase employment”. Sharon Taylor, chairwoman of the LGA’s finance panel, said councils would be forced to raid other budgets, which were already being squeezed, in order to help tenants suffering as a result of housing benefit changes. “Unless more is done to create new jobs and homes, households will be pushed into financial hardship and we will see a huge rise in the number of people going to their councils asking for help to make ends meet. “Local government can help generate the necessary jobs and new homes but the government has to give councils more influence over employment schemes and more freedom to borrow to build new houses. “Demand for discretionary housing payments will significantly outstrip the money the government has made available to councils to mitigate the changes. This will have a massive impact on local government budgets,” she said. The study – conducted for the LGA by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion – estimated that the income of households claiming benefit will be £1,165 a year – or £31 a week – lower in 2015/16 as a result of welfare reforms excluding the universal credit.”