The welfare budget is set to come under further assault today as chancellor George Osborne delivers his Autumn Statement.
As part of the statement, the Government is expected to provide an update on its economic plans based on the latest forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Over a billion pounds worth of Housing Benefit expenditure was lost to fraud and official error between April 2011 and March 2012, new figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have revealed.
The DWP's statistics show that total overpayments due to fraud and error across the entire benefits system was £3.4 billion, or 2.1% of the total spend of £159.2 billion.
Pressure is mounting on the chancellor to axe plans to cut housing benefit for under 25s, with some reports suggesting the move has already been shelved.
A study published today by umbrella group Homeless Link says welfare cuts are already increasing the chances of young people becoming homeless. And yesterday a Yougov poll commissioned by single homelessness charity Crisis found 57 per cent of people are opposed to cutting housing benefit for under 25s.
A Labour MP has questioned the fairness of the Government’s under occupation plans for the social sector, warning that many of his disabled constituents who have had adaptations to their homes face being “kicked out for having an extra bedroom”.
Under the Government’s size criteria rules for the social sector – which kick in next April – working age social tenants face having their housing benefit cut for having spare bedrooms.
Government moves to impose a minimum cost per unit of alcohol have been backed by a homelessness charity that has campaigned against super-strength drinks - which it claims kill more homeless people than crack and heroin.
Thames Reach, which runs street outreach services and a variety of supported housing projects in London, has urged the Government to increase the price of strong alcoholic drinks and has also called for drink companies to self-regulate.
Pressure is continuing to mount on new housing minister Mark Prisk to get to grips with the private rental sector.
Prisk – who is currently treading the party line that he will not regulate either agents or landlords, although before he got his ministerial job he had tried to get just such a measure enacted – is to be pressed for action following a meeting at the House of Lords.
The Government's Work Programme is failing homeless people with over half (58%) complaining that they have not been treated with dignity or respect, a new report has found.
The report, compiled by homelessness charities Crisis, Homeless Link and St Mungo's, reveals that 58% of those surveyed were not asked about the barriers they face getting into work, and 54% said they saw a Jobcentre Plus adviser less than once a month.
Brighton and Hove's housing services are facing a crisis, with the council claiming that the city has been "singled-out" for austerity.
Councillor Phelim Mac Cafferty, Brighton and Hove City Council's deputy leader, has said that a "perfect storm" of housing and council tax benefit changes have meant "that many vulnerable people aren’t going to be able to get the help they need to keep a roof over their heads".
Worried councils are reporting huge backlogs in their benefits departments due to problems with a new IT system vital to the government’s flagship benefit reforms.
Councils have seen backlogs of thousands of files, in some cases upwards of 10,000, build up under the automated transfers to local authority systems project, or ATLAS.
Housing associations have backed a call from MPs to delay the direct payment of housing benefit to social tenants under Universal Credit.
The call came from the Work and Pensions Select Committee whose inquiry into Universal Credit recommended that, during the initial phases of the programme, claimants who currently have their housing costs paid to their landlord should have the option to continue with this arrangement.
An agent is to face trial after denying accusations that he conned a prospective tenant into handing over money to rent a home that was allegedly not his to let out.
Thirugnanaselvam Damayantharan, 50, said in court to have been trading as Kingswood Estate Agents, allegedly showed Elaine Woodside around the property in Purley, Surrey.
Housing associations have urged the chancellor not to announce further welfare cuts when he delivers his autumn statement next month.
In a submission issued ahead of the 5 December announcement, umbrella body the National Housing Federation calls on George Osborne to reject further welfare cuts and ensure a ‘common-sense approach’ is taken with existing reforms due to come in next year.
Tenants saw private rents rise by 0.4% in October pushing the average rent across England and Wales to a new record high of £744 per month.
The latest increase means rents have now risen for seven consecutive months and are, on average, 3.4% higher than this time last year.
A majority of private landlords have rejected the Government’s welfare reform plans for housing benefit, saying there will not be enough accommodation available.
Releasing details of a survey of over 1,000 landlords across the UK, the Residential Landlords Association and the Scottish Association of Landlords found that 65.2% of respondents do not support the Government’s plans for Universal Credit.
An exodus of benefit recipients from high to low cost neighbourhoods is a widely predicted side effect of the government's controversial welfare ceiling. This £26,000 annual limit, will force thousands to move to cheaper areas as the long-standing principle that housing payments should cover rent completely is dissolved by ministers next year, worried policy analysts claim.
Much less has been said about those who decide to stay put and struggle on. A report published by the Pro-Housing Alliance casts new light on the effect of diminished welfare support on a group officially accepted as the hardest hit by the cap: the 1.4 million private renters.
The minister for welfare reform Lord David Freud has admitted that a reduced cap on housing benefit could force families in high-value areas to move.
In a speech to the National Landlords Association yesterday, Lord Freud defended the government’s controverial welfare reform programme and reiterated that welfare reform was designed to take control of ‘spiralling welfare costs’.
A convicted loan shark has been ordered to pay back £100,000.
Derrick Morgan preyed on vulnerable adults in the Neath Port Talbot area of South Wales. He has already served a 12-month prison sentence for illegal money lending and benefit fraud.
The introduction of universal credit could leave many single-parent families facing a life in poverty because of rising private sector housing costs.
A study from the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University found that the caps on how much benefit can be claimed under the new system will leave many worse off even if they take part-time work.
Over 75,000 British children will spend Christmas Day homeless, a charity has warned.
Shelter Scotland has published the figures to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people over the festive period.
London councils will be forced to ship thousands of families out of the capital – some as far away as Wales – after next April’s benefits cuts mean they are priced out of the private rental market.
A report by the Child Poverty Action Group and Lasa, a welfare rights charity, predicts that 124,480 London households will be hit by a combination of cuts to Local Housing Allowance, the new benefit cap which means no household can claim more than £26,000 a year in total, and under-occupation penalties.