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.
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.