Housing gloom

I came into possession of details of how the Housing Benefit changes will affect those people claiming in the county. Below is a rough guide to changes being implemented; it makes grim reading if you are on benefits already.

LOCAL HOUSING ALLOWANCE
The New Scheme will begin in April 2011

The Headline changes are as follows:

Existing Claimants
will retain their current level of LHA until the Anniversary of their current claim, plus 9 months;
For example, if a family claimed LHA in Nov 2010 they would be protected until Nov 2011 and then for a further 9 months.
Any change of circumstances after March 2011, such as change in income benefits, anyone moving in or out of the household, will result in that claimant coming under the new scheme immediately.

LHA RATES
These will all be reduced from the middle to the lowest third of Rents in the local area (the single room rent is already set at this level).
Please see attached rates on PDF attached. Briefly there is a reduction for each bedroom you are entitled to rent by £5 a week; i.e. a 3 bed property will receive around £15 a week less. The rate for 5 bedrooms disappears altogether.

UNDER 35’s
The rules that previously applied to under 25s - that they are only entitled to privately rent a room in a shared house (currently £58 a week in the county, apart from Northampton where it is £55) - will now apply to every individual claimant under the age of 35, once their period of protection has expired or their circumstance changes.
For example: A 34 year old in a one bed flat will see their rent reduced from £85 a week to £58 a week should there be a break in their income support or JSA, such as having a weeks work.
This is likely to have a significant effect on those who may live separately from their children but have them at weekends.

Long Term Unemployed
Claimants who have claimed JSA continuously for 12 months from March 2011 will have a 10% reduction in their LHA. This is cumulative i.e. 2 yrs out of work will result in a 20% reduction, 3 years 30%. This applies to Social Housing as well as those in private rented.

Non Dependency Deductions
These are where there are children in the household who have turned 18. For each of these a reduction will be made in the claimants LHA of £9.40 a week
Previously this would be waived if the non dependant provided proof of no income or on State benefits. The New Scheme does not seem to allow for this.

Exemptions
Previously people living in supported accommodation (such as "Hostels") were exempt from the general rules, particularly in respect of the Single Room Rent.
There is as yet no confirmation that these exemptions will still apply (apparently, a local hostel manager has privately stated that without these exemptions being reinstated they would not be able to accommodate under 35s).

Council Rents
The intention is for these to rise to be consistent with the Private Rented sector.
This is in line with the proposed abolition of secure Social Housing Tenancies where the stated aim is for new entrants to Social Housing to be given short term contracts and annually assessed to see if they can be moved into private rented sector.
The 10% reduction in LHA for being on JSA for 12 months still applies to those in Social housing.

Supported Accommodation Providers
Following the Closure of the two YMCA hostels in the County, most Supported Accommodation providers appear to be pessimistic of their continuing in their present form.
It seems highly likely that there will be few, if any, projects offering on site staffing and support in the future as their present contracts run down. The preferred model now is for people to go into general needs housing and then for support staff to visit them there. Even Women’s Aid is under review, my source understands.

***

Be scared: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/19/uk-look-like-by-2015
The Guardian is no longer a socialist newspaper; they supported the Liberals at the last election (a bandwagon they jumped on that I'm sure they now regret, regardless of what Deborah Orr says), but this paints a very even handed picture of Britain in 4 years - the pros and the cons. It has to be said that as a socialist the most haunting aspect of this forecast is that if things stay as they are and Labour get back in in 2015, they might not have enough money to make any changes and Britain might just end up being a decaying island with, as the Sex Pistols once said - No Future!