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.
Local Housing Allowance rates – the allowances paid to people claiming housing benefits - which will take effect from April this year have been published by the Department for Work and Pensions.
And a number of the 16 categories for shared bedroom and one, two and three bedroom properties have gone up - prompting criticism of landlords who "jumped the gun" and banned applicants on housing benefit.
Housing benefits payments in four out of ten North East homes will rise this year – proving to one landlord that “blacklisting benefits tenants is beyond bonkers”
The Department for Work and Pensions this week published the Local Housing Allowance rates – the allowances paid to people claiming housing benefits - which will take effect from April this year.
Part-time workers judged to be doing too little to find full-time work face having their benefit for housing costs sanctioned by the government for the first time under universal credit.
Under the present system housing benefit is paid direct to landlords and sanctions can only be applied to out-of-work benefits, such as jobseeker’s allowance or employment support allowance.
A daily average of 356 Londoners claiming Jobseeker's Allowance saw their benefits sanctioned in the year to September 2013, government figures have revealed.
The statistics, compiled by London Assembly Green Party member Jenny Jones, reveal that twice as many were sanctioned last year than in mayor Boris Johnson's first year in office.
Tens of thousands of people claiming housing benefit have been forced to “take action” and find work or move to a smaller home because of the so-called “bedroom tax”, Iain Duncan Smith has said.
Figures released by the Government show a 9 per cent fall in the number of housing benefit claimants facing a reduction in their housing benefit due to the removal of the spare room subsidy.
Two thirds of households affected by the bedroom tax cannot find money to pay their rents, according to the National Housing Federation.
A survey of 183 housing associations carried out for the Federation found that 66% of their residents hit by the bedroom tax are in rent arrears, with more than a third (38%) reported to be in debt because they were unable to pay the bedroom tax.
At least 3,000 tenants in the West Midlands are set to be eligible for rebates after having benefits wrongly cut because they have extra bedrooms.
Figures obtained from councils by the BBC show thousands have been wrongly charged the under-occupancy penalty - dubbed the "bedroom tax" by critics - since April last year.
The Government has pledged more money for housing benefit claimants who need extra support.
But specialist property portal Dssmove.co.uk said the £165million will not fix the underlying problem.
A Labour MP's bill calling for the bedroom tax to be scrapped will get a second reading after successfully passing its first hurdle.
Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery (pictured) yesterday introduced a 10-minute bill on scrapping the controversial under-occupation penalty, which was backed by 226 votes to one.