A report by a committee of MPs said that the government should monitor the costs to local government of plans to cut housing benefit, and should be prepared to consider additional funding if necessary in order to support areas that were adversely affected.
Source: Changes to Housing Benefit Announced in the June 2010 Budget, Second Report (Session 2010-11), HC 469, House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report part 1 | Report part 2 | Mencap press release | St Mungos press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2010-Dec
A briefing paper examined the legal position in relation to the payment of housing benefit/local housing allowance direct to tenants, and the evidence on the impact of doing so.
Source: Wendy Wilson, Paying Housing Benefit Direct to Tenants, Standard Note SN/SP/3211, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Dec
An article examined the implications for London of the coalition government proposed cuts to housing benefits. It said that the result was likely to be a higher degree of social class and income segregation in London between a rich (and increasingly gentrified) central and inner area, and lower-cost areas.
Source: Chris Hamnett, 'Moving the poor out of central London? The implications of the coalition government 2010 cuts to Housing Benefits', Environment and Planning A, Volume 42 Number 12
Links: Article
Date: 2010-Dec
A report said that some households could face repeated income fluctuations as a result of planned changes in housing benefits, making it very difficult for them to predict what their income would be from one year to the next. In addition, in some cases people could find that they had to move repeatedly in order to avoid the impact of the cuts – as many as three times in three years.
Source: Keep Moving, Family Action (formerly Family Welfare Association
Links: Report | Family Action press release
Date: 2010-Dec
Researchers examined the extent and cost to local authorities of 'exempt accommodation' – accommodation that was exempt from private sector rent restrictions. The cost of non-registered social landlord 'exempt accommodation' claims was estimated at £70-130 million above rent officer determinations, an increase of 85 per cent from 2003-04 to 2009-10. The lack of effective rent restriction by most local authorities reflected the belief that there was no basis to restrict even where rents were considered high, generally because there was no suitable alternative accommodation available for a meaningful rental comparison. Although the regulations were straightforward, their interpretation had became increasingly complex and difficult to administer.
Source: Michelle Boath, Eleanor Baker and Helen Wilkinson, 'Exempt' and Supported Accommodation, Research Report 714, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2010-Dec
Implementation of housing benefit cuts
The government published regulations designed to implement cuts in housing benefit proposed in the 'emergency' June 2010 Budget and October 2010 Spending Review. Restrictions on the maximum rate of local housing allowance would be brought forward to April 2011 from October 2011 for new claimants. Existing claimants would be exempt for up to 9 months from the date their claim was reviewed by their local authority. The regulations were accompanied by publication of revised impact assessments.
Source: Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2010, Department for Work and Pensions, Statutory Instrument 2010/2835, TSO
Links: Text of Statutory Instrument | Explanatory notes | Impact assessment | Equality impact assessment | Hansard | DWP press release | BPF press release | CIH press release | CPAG press release | Crisis press release | London Councils press release | Shelter press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Nov
Local housing allowance – progress in implementation
A paper examined progress in implementing the local housing allowance (introduced for new housing benefit claimants living in the deregulated private sector from April 2008).
Source: Wendy Wilson, Local Housing Allowance and the Future Reform of Housing Benefit, Standard Note SN/SP/4957, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Nov
A report provided an updated estimate of the costs to local authorities of administering housing benefit and council tax benefit.
Source: Michelle Boath, Ian Dunbar, Jonathan Hyde, Helen Wilkinson and Darren Mullan, Updating the Costs of Housing and Council Tax Benefit Administration, Research Report 705, Department for Work and Pensions
Date: 2010-Nov
A report said that changes in claimant numbers might have more impact on housing benefit expenditure than government proposals for restricting entitlement to the benefit. It presented three scenarios for the possible numbers of claimants over the spending review period. Small changes in the underlying assumptions on unemployment and economic inactivity led to large changes in both the number of claimants and overall housing benefit expenditure.
Source: Ben Pattison, Jennifer Strutt and Jim Vine, The Impact of Claimant Numbers on Housing Benefit Expenditure: Sensitivity analysis using three scenarios, Building and Social Housing Foundation
Date: 2010-Nov
A report examined the impact of proposals to cap receipt of local housing allowance (housing benefit) and to link allowance rates to the consumer prices index rather than the retail prices index. It said that these changes would break the link between the support that people received and the rent that they paid; and that this could force a migration of people, by making some areas of the country 'unaffordable'.
Source: Impact of Housing Benefit Reforms, Chartered Institute of Housing
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Nov
Housing benefit size criteria – briefing paper
A briefing paper examined how the application of size criteria operated in regard to housing benefit, and provided information on discretionary housing payments. The application of the size criteria had particular implications for disabled people living in private rented accommodation who required an additional bedroom in order to accommodate a carer.
Source: Robert Long and Wendy Wilson, Housing Benefit: Size Criteria and Discretionary Housing Payments, Standard Note SN/SP/4887, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Nov
A report (by an official advisory body) said that the government's proposed cuts in housing benefit involved 'real risks.. of a substantial displacement of the poorest and most vulnerable households'.
Source: The Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2010 (S.I. No. 2010/2835)/The Rent Officers (Housing Benefit Functions) Amendment Order 2010 (S.I. No. 2010/2836), Social Security Advisory Committee
Links: Report | Shelter press release | Inside Housing report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Nov
A briefing paper examined the measures to reduce housing benefit expenditure set out in the June 2010 Budget and the October 2010 Spending Review.
Source: Wendy Wilson, Housing Benefit: Implications of the June 2010 Budget and Spending Review, Standard Note SN/SP/5638, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Nov
A briefing paper examined the legal position in relation to the direct payment of housing benefit to tenants, discussed the pathfinder programme (under which pathfinder authorities only paid housing benefit to private landlords in certain limited cases), and considered the evidence on the impact of direct payments to date.
Source: Wendy Wilson, Paying Housing Benefit Direct to Tenants, Standard Note SN/SP/3211, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Oct
The coalition government announced (in its 2010 Spending Review) that spending on affordable housing would be cut by 60 per cent in real terms by 2014-15. Rents paid by new social housing tenants would rise sharply, to as much as 80 per cent of market rates. There would be an increase in the age threshold for the shared room rate in housing benefit from 25 to 35 – so that single people aged 25-35 would no longer be able to claim housing benefit for a flat. There would be a cap on total benefit payments for out-of-work single people of £18, 200 per year (as well as a £26, 000 cap for workless families, as previously announced) – administered by cutting housing benefit down to the cap level. Local councils would be required to find ways of cutting spending on council tax benefit by 10 per cent, or nearly £500 million per year.
Source: Spending Review 2010, Cm 7942, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | Summary | Letter | Hansard | HMT press releases | CIH press release | CML press release | Crisis press release | Crisis briefing | EROSH press release | Homeless Link press release | NHF press release | PwC press release | RICS press release | St Mungos press release | Inside Housing report (1) | Inside Housing report (2) | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Oct
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the local housing allowance. It said that it acknowledged that the allowance had succeeded in fulfilling many of its objectives by giving customers more choice and responsibility over their housing needs: but it was concerned about the high cost of housing benefit in general and the local housing allowance in particular. Changes announced in the June 2010 'emergency' Budget would achieve savings of £1 billion by 2015-16, and at the same time make housing benefit 'fairer and more sustainable'.
Source: Local Housing Allowance: Government Response to the Committee's Fifth Report of Session 2009-10, Third Special Report (Session 2010-11), HC 509, House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee/TSO
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2010-Oct
A report outlined a more sustainable approach to financial support with housing costs. Successive governments had allowed housing benefit to 'take the strain' of support with housing costs: but other mechanisms, including housing supply and taxation, could be used more effectively to relieve the burden and ensure that everyone had access to decent and affordable housing.
Source: Diane Diacon, Ben Pattison, Jennifer Strutt and Jim Vine, Support with Housing Costs: Developing a simplified and sustainable system, Building and Social Housing Foundation
Links: Report | BSHF press release
Date: 2010-Oct
A study examined the effects of changes to local housing allowance (proposed in the Budget of June 2010) on around 1 million tenants in private rented housing. The cuts were likely to have the effect of shifting many claimant households from around or just below the 60 per cent median income poverty line into severe poverty – the cuts would push an additional 84,000 households below £100 per week per couple to live on for all expenses after housing costs. These households included 54,000 children.
Source: Alex Fenton, How Will Changes to Local Housing Allowance Affect Low-Income Tenants in Private Rented Housing?, Shelter
Date: 2010-Sep
Researchers examined the early experiences of the local housing allowance on the part of tenants and advisers, following national roll-out in April 2008. There was a lack of transparency for claimants generally and, in particular, for claimants who were in work. For some – especially those already in financial difficulties and who had problems managing their day-to-day finances – there were many aspects of the administration of the allowance that caused real difficulty.
Source: Yvette Hartfree, Grahame Whitfield, Amanda Waring, Adriana Sandu and Katherine Hill, Tenants' and Advisers' Early Experiences of the Local Housing Allowance National Rollout, Research Report 688, Department for Work and Pensions
Date: 2010-Sep
The new coalition government announced that it would not carry out a council tax revaluation in England during the lifetime of the existing Parliament (that is, before 2015).
Source: Press release 24 September 2010, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: DCLG press release | CIPFA press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Sep
A report explored the experiences of landlords and agents letting to tenants on the local housing allowance following its national roll-out in April 2008. Landlords highlighted a number of positive features of claiming housing benefit under the LHA rules, including greater transparency and simplicity, as well as the removal of pre-tenancy determinations. However, there was considerable strength of feeling against direct payments.
Source: David Rhodes and Mark Bevan, Private Landlords and the Local Housing Allowance System of Housing Benefit, Research Report 689, Department for Work and Pensions
Date: 2010-Sep
A report examined what comparisons could be made between low-income working households and housing benefit recipients in the private rented sector. It looked at the type and cost of housing, how people accessed it, and the characteristics of the respective households.
Source: Bruce Walker and Pat Niner, Low Income Working Households in the Private Rented Sector, Research Report 698, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2010-Sep
A paper examined the impact of proposed changes to housing benefit and local housing allowance (announced in the 2010 'emergency' Budget). Although there was a need to control expenditure, the proposals would hit low-income households hard during the recession precisely when they were most in need of support and when adverse consequences were likely to be most damaging.
Source: Briefing Paper on the Impact of Changes to Housing Benefit and Local Housing Allowance in the Budget, Chartered Institute of Housing
Links: Paper | Guardian report | Children & Young People Now report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Jul
A paper said that housing benefit reforms announced in the government's 'emergency' 2010 Budget could have significant financial and social costs for individuals and communities without making savings on public expenditure. There was a clear need for long-term reform of housing benefit and the wider system of support with housing costs: but many of the measures announced in the Budget were questionable.
Source: Jim Vine with Diane Diacon and Ben Pattison, Housing Benefit and the Emergency Budget of June 2010, Building and Social Housing Foundation
Links: Paper | New Start report
Date: 2010-Jul
An official impact assessment said that 'a substantial proportion' of the housing benefit caseload would be affected by cuts announced in the 'emergency' 2010 Budget; and that some claimants might have to find cheaper accommodation.
Source: Equality Impact Assessment: Housing Benefit – Changes to the local housing allowance arrangements and housing benefit size criteria for people with non-resident overnight carers, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Citizens Advice press release | Crisis press release
Date: 2010-Jul
The government announced (in the 2010 Budget) that the most expensive properties in an area would be excluded from housing benefit calculations with effect from October 2010, as part of a bid to save £250 million per year. It said that the existing approach to calculating housing benefit meant that very high rates were paid to a small number of tenants: this discouraged employment and was unfair.
Source: Budget 2010: Securing the Recovery, HC 451, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | Hansard | HMT press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs said that direct payment of the local housing allowance to tenants should remain the 'default'. Managing one's own finances was an important step towards personal responsibility and financial inclusion and, through this, readiness for work. There was evidence that giving tenants the choice of having rent paid either to them or to the landlord would defeat this important objective of the scheme and help perpetuate benefit dependency. However, the policy of direct payments to the tenant would only work well when practical problems were addressed, safeguard procedures for vulnerable tenants strengthened, and landlord confidence in the scheme improved.
Source: Local Housing Allowance, Fifth Report (Session 2009-10), HC 235, House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Shelter press release | NLA press release | CIH press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Mar
A study examined the impact that the housing benefit system had on people's ability to find and sustain housing, and how it affected people's ability to move into and sustain work. It said that housing benefit cuts could push struggling tenants further towards poverty, debt, and homelessness, and trap recipients in unemployment and poverty.
Source: Housing Benefit Survey 2010, Crisis
Links: Report | Crisis press release | Inside Housing report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Mar
