Benefits claimants in the North-East and North Yorkshire have been hit harder by Government’s ‘bedroom tax’ than any other region, a new study has revealed.
The report, by Oxfam and the New Policy Institute (NPI), warns that wide-ranging cuts are changing the shape of welfare support at a time when rising prices are making it harder for families to make ends meet.
Social housing tenants evicted from their home due to rent arrears are set to be hit by a 150% increase in court fees.
The standard county court fee for a rent arrears possession case will rise from £100 to £250 from 22 April.
A BLIND widow who got a personal apology from a council boss over a bedroom tax eviction threat has had her housing benefit cut.
Now Helen Sockell, who lost her sight aged 14, fears fresh moves to boot her out of her home.
One in four, or about 843,000, London households currently receive housing benefit to help them pay their rent, says a new London Assembly report.
The housing benefit bill for London in 2012-13 was more than £6bn and claims have risen by over 100,000 since 2008. It’s not surprising the government wants to get a hold of rising costs, but the report describes how nearly half of all households in the UK subject to the overall benefits cap have been in London. This is primarily down to our higher housing costs. Londoners in social housing have also been disproportionately affected by the "Bedroom Tax".
Up to 100,000 social housing tenants hit by the bedroom tax are trapped in large homes that they can't move out of, research has revealed.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's study found that the government's controversial under-occupancy policy has failed to free-up homes in many areas.
Croydon Council has seen rent arrears amongst its tenants drop by 9% in the last year.
Unpaid rent levels in the borough fell over four weeks in March by more than £51,000, bringing arrears for the last financial year down by nearly £150,000, from £1,596,709 in April 2013.
About 6% of social housing tenants in Britain affected by changes to benefits partly designed to cut under-occupancy have moved home, BBC research suggests.
Ministers claim the policy - dubbed the bedroom tax by critics - will free up big homes and save taxpayers £1m a day.
A fed up mum is in dispute with Oldham Council after claiming she has wrongly been paying bedroom tax.
Heather Crimes (59) lives in a three-bedroom house in Helvellyn Walk, Higginshaw. Her two children no longer live with her and she has had to pay an extra £21.64 a week for the spare bedrooms.
More people could be eligible for a refund on the bedroom tax following further clarification about the loophole debacle from the Department for Work and Pensions.
The government initially issued guidance which stated that people who had been in a property prior to 1996 and continuously entitled to housing benefit were exempt from paying the controversial under-occupation penalty, along with those who inherited tenancies from their partner following their death.
Hundreds of tenants have escaped the impact of welfare reform, but their housing association landlord warns the real problem may be how tenants are paying.
Mark Rogers, chief executive of Circle Housing, said 20 per cent of its tenants who were hit by the bedroom tax, and 40 per cent of those hit by the overall benefit cap, were no longer affected by the changes.