'Vulnerable' claimants will get personalised help with their Universal Credit claims, and some may even continue to see their housing benefits paid directly to their landlords, ministers have confirmed today.
Split payments between different household members could also be considered.
Plans to cut housing benefit from households if a young adult member of the family is seeking work could increase homelessness, charities have warned.
Government proposals being voted on today could result in an £800 annual cut from housing benefit paid to parents or guardians with a young person aged under 25 who is living at home and seeking work. Current rules make a deduction only if the young person is in employment.
For the first time since the 1960's there are more people in England renting from private landlords than from councils or housing associations.
The English Housing Survey for 2011-12 shows that the rising number of private tenants, 3.84 million, outnumbered the 3.8 million in social housing.
The Department for Work and Pensions has insisted its plans for universal credit are on track - flying in the face of criticism from MPs.
The DWP on Tuesday published its response to a report from the Work and Pensions select committee published in November. The committee warned the government’s timetable for universal credit was ‘ambitious’ and more needs to be done to ensure vulnerable people’s needs are met.
The number of people rough sleeping has gone up by 31 per cent in the past two years, according to government statistics released today.
Communities and Local Government department figures show the number of rough sleepers in a single-night snapshot in autumn 2012 was 2,309 up from 1,768 in autumn 2010. This year’s figure was a rise of 6 per cent from autumn 2011’s count of 2,181.
The number of households with children in the private rented sector has increased by 103 per cent in the past 10 years, according to a report from a research charity.
Families with children in higher income households were the group with the greatest proportional rise in the Building and Social Housing Foundation’s analysis of data from a variety of sources.
The boss of a collapsed letting agency which lost £1.2m of money belonging to over 300 soldiers, including those serving in Afghanistan, has been disqualified for nine years.
Paul Smith, 47, director of Blue Force Property, a letting agency in Hornchurch, Essex, was disqualified following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
The four boroughs forced to trial a £500-a-week benefit cap will spend their whole share of an emergency hardship fund within five months unless they move people to cheaper areas or obtain more funding.
Research by London Councils for Inside Housing reveals the four London boroughs unexpectedly having to trial the government’s £26,000-a-year benefit cap could spend their share of the pot before their peers are affected at all.
Private rents in England are rising by almost £300 a year despite government assurances that welfare reforms would drive down the cost of renting, a study has found.
Analysis of Valuation Office Agency data by housing charity Shelter has shown rents rose an average of 2.8 per cent from 2011 to 2012, with some areas seeing increases of more than 14 per cent. The 2.8 per cent rise is equivalent to £297 on average, in a year when average wages did not rise.
Landlords who refuse to comply with requests to improve their properties should be charged a £400 admin bill when orders are made against them. These would include improvement notices, prohibition orders and management orders.
The proposal is from Southend Council, which is set to incorporate it into next year’s budget.