Cutting housing benefit for young people

In response to George Osborne’s speech at the Conservative conference yesterday, Shiv Malik in the Guardian highlights the DWP’s own family resources survey, which shows that 56% of under-25s without children already lived with their parents, 19% were in shared student accommodation, 8% lived in flat shares and only 10% lived independently.

Of those living independently, the benefit given to under-25s currently costs £1.8bn a year but represents only 8% of total housing benefit claims, so the total saved by this measure would be a few hundreds of millions of pounds. Shelter said there was no evidence that young people were living outside the family home because they could take up housing benefit, adding that under-25’s already received the lower shared room rate of benefit introduced in 1996.

Randeep Ramesh, also writing for the Guardian, notes that there are 380,000 under-25s claiming housing benefit; only 166,000 are single and childless. He says that last year, according to Crisis, 10,000 young people became homeless after being thrown out by their parents. As he finishes: “It’s one thing to tell young people they have to go back home, but what if their home does not want them?” This article also has a good analysis on the proposals to limit payments for children.

Shiv Malik’s article is here Osborne’s housing benefit proposals ‘will hit families with children hardest’

Randeep Ramesh’s article is here Conservative assault on welfare shows party’s nasty, authoritarian streak

In David Cameron’s key note speech at the Conservative conference, he confirmed that government are looking at plans to stop payments of housing benefit being made to people aged under 25 years of age.

Thus ensuring that for those under 25s who are working in low-paid employment in high-rent areas, work will most definitely not pay. Somewhat undermines their justification for Welfare reform doesn’t it?

Well indeed it does.

Here’s our new blog on the proposals Housing for the young