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The government's Work Programme (WP) has been slammed by the Works and Pensions Committee, which has concluded that it is "unlikely" to help the most disadvantaged long-term unemployed.

“The performance of the WP in its first 14 months was poor. There are signs that it is now improving significantly for mainstream jobseekers. However, it has proved much less successful to date in addressing the problems faced by jobseekers who face more serious obstacles to finding a job – people with disabilities, homeless people, and those with a history of drug or alcohol abuse," said Dame Anne Begg MP, the committee's chair. 

One in four low-to-middle income households are spending more than 35 per cent of their income on housing, a report has found.

The study from the Resolution Foundation think tank has found 1.3 million low-income families across Britain are spending more than they can afford on housing. 

Private rents across the UK have risen to their highest level since last November, according to the latest figures published today.

The LSL Buy-to-Let Property Index for April shows the average rent in England and Wales has risen by 0.2% since March to £736 per month. Continued growth leaves rents in April 3.9% higher than a year ago. 

The Universal Credit direct payment demonstration projects will be extended for a further six months, Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud announced today, as new findings from the projects are published.

The Department for Work and Pensions says the extension will help to further develop the support needed for social housing tenants moving onto Universal Credit. The projects will now run until the end of the year. 

Welfare reform minister Lord Freud has described a suicide linked to his controversial bedroom tax policy as a "desperately sad event".

Giving evidence to the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee, which is investigating the impact of housing benefit reforms in Wales, Lord Freud extended his condolences to the family of Stephanie Bottrill, who left a note in which she blamed the government for her death. 

The Residential Landlords Association is consulting with landlords over its own proposals for long-term tenancies.

The body has also entered discussions with mortgage lenders as to their concerns. 

A grandmother who killed herself left a note in which she blamed the Government for her death.

Just days before she died Stephanie Bottrill, 53, from in Solihull in the West Midlands, told neighbours she simply could not afford to live any more. 

Birmingham City Council recorded a huge increase in the number of people seeking help to pay their rent in the first two weeks after government welfare reforms came into effect.

The council says almost 2,000 applications were made for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) in the first two weeks of April – 50% more than for the whole of the first quarter of 2012-13. 

Fraud and error in the benefit system stands at £3.5bn or 2.1% of total benefit expenditure, latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show.

Preliminary estimates for fraud and error in 2012/13 show £1.2bn of benefit spending is lost due to fraud, £1.6bn due to claimant error, and £0.7bn due to official error. 

Letting agents have criticised the Government’s flagship ‘build to rent’ policy, describing it as a “ludicrous” intervention in the sector.

A survey of over 250 agents by Leeds company Morgans in conjunction with software supplier LetMC, found unhappiness over the Government’s approach.