Benefit cap fuels housing problems for London councils
Neil Puffett
Monday, December 15, 2014
The benefit cap is hampering local authorities in London in their attempts to move families out of temporary accommodation and into a permanent home, a report has found.
Research commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions into the impact of the cap found that out of eight case study local authority areas, two that were in London were both concerned about finding accommodation for homeless families.
The cap, introduced in April 2013, limits the total amount of benefits that most jobless working-age households can receive to £500 a week for couples and families, and £350 a week for single people without dependent children.
Greater numbers of people in London have been affected by the cap than other areas – mainly due to the higher cost of housing.
The report found that both London authorities in the study had experienced increased problems in finding accommodation that could be afforded below the cap for families that had presented as homeless and were being put up in temporary accommodation.
“This was reported to have put a strain on the local authorities’ emergency accommodation budgets,” the report said.
In August, it emerged that the number of families living in hostels and women’s refuges is at its highest level for six years, with 1,900 families with children in bed and breakfasts in the first quarter of the year, compared with 1,560 in the last quarter of 2013.
The government has previously criticised local authorities for not doing enough to tackle the situation.
The report found that, in the case study areas outside London, the cap had very little impact on homelessness services.
It also found both the London authorities were making use of accommodation outside of their borough in order to find homes that were affordable. But both reported fairly low numbers, as they were working with affected families to try to find them accommodation in an area where they wanted to live, or had connections and support.
In one of the London case study areas a total of around 150 families were known to have moved away by autumn 2014, around 120 of who were living in the privately rented homes, with the remaining 30 in council housing.
Latest government statistics show that by August 2014 a total of 51,158 households had been subject to the cap at some point during the 17-month period.
Out of these, 48,427 had at least one child (94.7 per cent); the majority of families had their benefits reduced by less then £50 a week (52.5 per cent); a total of 21.2 per cent had benefits reduced by £100 or more; and nearly half of those families affected were living in London (45.6 per cent).