There will be a huge shortage of affordable private rental accommodation for tenants on housing benefit if reforms go ahead next spring as currently suggested.
The warning has come from the Government’s spending watchdog, the National Audit Office.
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.
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.
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 unique social housing survey has found landlords can helps tenants save around £40 per month by offering one-to-one financial skills training.
Analysis of the training involving 150 tenants over nine-months and launched today by national charity Citizens Advice found 71% of tenant learners reported higher financial confidence – compared with just 13% of a comparison group.