The value of housing benefit awards has risen by 13% over five years to keep up with the pace of increasing rents, official statistics reveal. That policy is not working then is it!
According to Inside Housing:
“According to figures published yesterday by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the average value of a housing benefit claim in May this year was £95.07 per week, compared to £84.20 in 2010.
The statistics suggest that housing benefit claims are creeping up in order to match the growing rents demanded by landlords.
Generally, social landlords charge lower rents than private landlords. However, the average housing benefit award in the social sector rose by 20% to an average of £88.42 over the last five years, while the average award for private renters dropped marginally to £108.82.
In 2014, ministers placed a 1% cap on housing benefit increases for private rented sector tenants.
In the Budget last month, George Osborne announced that social landlords would have to reduce their rents by 1% every year for four years, ripping up plans to allow associations to increase rents by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of inflation plus 1% until 2026.
“We are going to end the ratchet of ever higher housing benefit chasing up ever higher rents in the social housing sector,” the chancellor said.
Yesterday’s statistics also show that the number of in-work housing benefit claimants has almost doubled from 650,551 in May 2010 to 1.1 million in May this year.”