Nearly 1 million people in work are being forced to rely on housing benefit, double the figure five years ago, new statistics show.
According to Inside housing today:
House of Commons figures show 962,000 housing benefit claimants have a job this year compared with 478,000 in 2009/10.
Since 2011, housing associations have built new homes and converted existing ones to affordable rent, for which tenants pay rents of up to 80% of the market rate to make up for lower levels of government funding.
Labour will attack the government over the figures today, to argue that millions are trapped in insecure jobs with ‘poverty pay’.
Rachel Reeves, shadow work and pensions secretary, will blame the increases on the government’s inability to ‘tackle low pay, insecure work and the cost-of-living crisis’.
She will say: ‘That has meant thousands more people have been forced to rely on housing benefit to make ends meet.’
The government will hit back by accusing Labour of handing it an ‘out of control’ benefits system and voting against its welfare reforms.
Mark Harper, the minister for disabled people, said: ‘Their system saw some people claiming £104,000 a year of hardworking taxpayers’ money to live in expensive areas.
‘We have capped benefits so no family can claim more than the average family gets by going out to work and we’ve put an end to unlimited housing benefit.’