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Talk to any landlord or letting agent and they're likely to have strong opinions about renting properties to people claiming housing benefit. Whichever side of the fence you sit, accepting tenants who rely on help from the government to pay their rent remains a contentious issue.

Stereotyping still exists and is, quite frankly, appalling. We should be horrified by the lack of respect, understanding and common decency that people claiming benefits face daily. 

There has been an 86% increase in workers claiming housing benefit in the last three years as private rents across England soar, according to a new report. 

Analysing the latest Government figures, the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) Home Truths report warns that the number of working housing benefit claimants, currently 903,440 of the 5.03 million caseload (as of May 2012), is rising by 10,000 more people every month. 

Ask any housing advice or homelessness officer what the most common question is that they get asked, apart from “Can I have a council house please?” and you will usually find it is “Do you know any landlords or agents who take DSS?”

In London at the moment there are between 5 and 9 people chasing every rental property. Although figures vary, depending on who you read what isn’t in dispute is the fact that landlords don’t have any problems finding tenants and can rent properties perfectly happily without councils, and yet councils need landlords to meet the massive demand for housing. 

DSS tenants get a bad press - often unfairly so. Here are the advantages, and disadvantages, to renting to this type of tenant.

Key points:

1. According to research, DSS tenants stay in properties for twice as long compared with non-DSS ones.
2. You can apply to the council to get housing benefit paid directly to your account if you have a good reason (like a failed credit check).
3. It can be harder to evict a DSS tenant. 

Protesters held an ‘inspection’ of local letting agents on Saturday to draw attention, they said, to high rents, short-term tenancies, discrimination against housing benefit claimants and agents’ high fees.

The protest apparently resulted in some agents shutting their doors while it was taking place. 

Plans to stop under-25s claiming housing benefit would not affect anyone coming out of care or fleeing domestic violence, a parliamentary aide has clarified.

Yesterday chancellor George Osborne announced the Conservative Party’s intentions to make a further £10bn savings on welfare by 2016, which is understood to feature the under-25s restriction and also the end to the automatic right of benefit increases for unemployed families having more children. 

Chancellor George Osborne and work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith have publicly agreed that £10bn of further savings on welfare can be made, after the pair co-authored a piece in the Daily Mail showing a united front on the issue.

The piece, penned for the opening day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, reveal the pair are “united” in their determination to deliver Universal Credit, and that both are “satisfied” that £10bn of further welfare savings can be made. The detail of the cuts, which is set to lead to serious tensions in the Coalition, are set to be announced by Mr Osborne today. 

The timing of advice and support for benefit claimants assessed as needing a special budgeting bank account to handle monthly payments under Universal Credit is crucial, according to a financial expert.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) yesterday held a procurement day for national payment suppliers who have expressed interest in developing new budgeting accounts for vulnerable claimants, which would be offered when claimants sign on to Universal Credit. 

The majority of the public want benefit spend monitored, according to a poll, leading to fears the Government’s rhetoric around 'problem families' and 'scroungers' is shaking people’s faith in the welfare state.

Think-tank Demos polled 2,052 adults, which revealed that 59% of them believed the Government should control what people spend the new Universal Credit on.

A Sheffield landlord has been given nine months jail for throwing one of his tenants onto the street without his shoes.

Jay Allen of Padley Way, Sheffield Lane, forcibly evicted Chris Blades from his home on Handsworth Road. Mr Blades had ran up £900 in rent arrears.