Housing Benefit Cuts not just affecting the unemployed but also the low paid will have a devastating effect on people lives so what is in line for you.
The only way we can stop this is by organising as a single voice, not as some protest group that marches from A to B but one that first protects our own communities and next disrupts the government’s ability to work as well as challenge the public into a conversation through road/train blocks.
Think it won’t work, just think about France whenever its Unions have a strike; it doesn’t take many only the courage to start to say NO!
OUR SILENCE WILL BE THEIR VICTORY!
Housing Benefit Cuts: Educate, Agitate, Organise!
Private Tenants on Local Housing Allowance:
* Tenants will no longer be able to keep up to £15 excess, an average weekly loss of £11 income for around 440,000 low-income households
* LHA rates will now be set at the 30th and not 50th percentile of local rents leaving households even less choice of landlord or area than before
*Maximum LHA rates will also be capped for each property size (see Figure 2) further constraining the available private rental market in pricey areas like London
*The 5-bed LHA rate is being abolished meaning families currently renting a 5-bed or larger home will now only receive the 4-bed rate, a huge reduction in benefit that will inevitably force large families into overcrowded housing conditions
* Single people aged 25-34 years old will be downgraded from the 1-bed to the shared-bed rate, hitting around 62,500 people by an average of £41 per week
*From April 2012, disabled claimants who have a non-resident carer will be entitled to an extra bed-rate benefiting around 10,000 disabled people
* From April 2013, LHA rates will no longer be calculated by monthly market rents but will rise annually in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
*From April 2013, working age tenants in council or Housing Association housing who are deemed to be living in homes too large for their needs will have their HB cut per surplus bedroom – this is likely to hit some 670,000 households by an average of £13 per week, with 70,000 losing more than £20 per week
For new claimants from 1 April 2011, changes 1-5 have already been implemented; for existing claimants prior to 1 April 2011; the £15 cut will usually be made on the anniversary of their claim, while the rest (2-5) will come in 9 months later, from 1 January 2012
Social Renters on Housing Benefit:
* From April 2013, working age tenants in council or Housing Association housing who are deemed to be living in homes too large for their needs will have their HB cut per surplus bedroom – this is likely to hit some 670,000 households by an average of £13 per week, with 70,000 losing more than £20 per week
* Tenants in social housing claiming HB should lose 10% of their weekly benefit after 12 months of claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance – this was dropped in February 2011.
All HB claimants with non-dependants living with them:
* Claimants in either the social or private rental sector who have non-dependants, typically their adult children, living with them, will see increased benefit deductions of around 27% a year for the next three years every April.
National weekly LHA caps
£250 a week for a shared/ one bedroom property
£290 a week for a two bedroom property
£340 a week for a three bedroom property
£400 a week for a four bedroom property
The government’s justification for these reforms shifts according to its intended audience, ranging from the need to reduce the ‘deficit’, bear down on private sector rents, restore 'fairness' to the benefits system in favour of ‘hard working families’, or force unemployed claimants to either get a job or find somewhere else to live.
Whatever story Ministers tell cannot hide the grim reality of what they are doing - these are devastating cuts affecting at least 1.7m tenants over the next few years, including all claimants in the private sector and around 1 in 5 households in the social rented sector. Official figures suggest that during 2012 the majority of private tenants will face a shortfall of up to £10 per week against their current rents,[6] a lot of money for people officially living in poverty to consistently find in the context of mass unemployment and austerity.
But whereas these claimants at least have a chance of absorbing the losses or negotiating a lower rent, around 100,000 households will lose over £30 a week with many in London losing £100s and some over £1,000.[7] The cuts will inevitably mean increased cases of arrears, homelessness and greater overcrowding with people being forced to move home or even borough in search of cheaper lower quality accommodation. As the article by Hackney Housing Group makes clear, London will by far and away be worst hit with the likelihood of ‘mass displacement’ from the inner to outer boroughs.
The implications of home loss, homelessness and forced relocation are serious and carry enormous potential social and economic consequences that have been downplayed by the government. Apart from the obvious increased costs and administrative burden placed on local authorities, social services and other public services, the impact on households and communities could be devastating. We are talking here about the breaking up of families and social networks, the disruption to a child's education or school, the possible breakdown in care and support received from social and children’s services. The long-term sick are one of the largest groups affected and cuts to HB to disabled people have their own particular effects in that many properties will have been specially adapted for their needs or there will be a support package in place to help them stay.
The bad news is this is just the short-term picture – from April 2013, two fundamental changes will kick in that threaten to re-draw the population map of Britain. First, benefits to out-of-work households will be capped at £500 for couples and lone parents and £350 for singles, with HB the first to be cut once the cap is breached. Around 50,000 households will be affected by an average loss of £93 a week, with 15% losing more than £150 a week.[8] Second, LHA rates will no longer be increased in line with actual market rents in a local area, but by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which since 1991 has risen consistently less than rental costs. While both changes will have the most adverse effect on households living in London and the South East where housing costs are the highest, over time, the entire country will also be affected so that by 2030, 60% of local authorities in England will be very unaffordable to LHA claimants.[9]
Overall and over time, HB cuts will create some of the worst patterns of social and spatial segregation Britain has ever known. Low income and poor households will find that the only housing they can afford to rent is that which falls below “basic common standards of decent housing”.[10] This is the future – if we don't act now, the long-term consequences will be hideous.
Source; Corporate Watch
