Families are facing homelessness because of errors in the way local authorities calculate housing benefit entitlements.
Source: Ombudsman warns of the ‘human cost’ of housing benefit errors : Welfare Weekly
Tag: Housing Benefit
Young family with disabled child left homeless after benefits blunder : Welfare Weekly
Council failed to correctly calculate the family’s housing benefit entitlement and wrongly told landlord they owed £8,000 in overpaid benefits.
Source: Young family with disabled child left homeless after benefits blunder : Welfare Weekly
Housing Benefit Victory: Child poverty campaigners welcome Supreme Court verdict
This is in some respects is good news, but what is not good is that Housing Benefit is not able to cover all rents. Housing assistance needs to be made avalable and I believe this is the decision of the Supreme Court. However, this still means a private tennant could lose their home, therefore surely aome form of Affordable Rent legislation needs to be in force, so that tennants will not lose their accommodation due to housing benefit shortfalls or exorbitant rents being charged.
Councils spend thousands on emergency housing payments
It is good to know that some councils, may be all councils are un undertaking measures of this nature, but how do people in those situations know that some help may be available.
Where is this information published or is it published. If it is, is it in areas where people in need will see it, are there posters in doctors surgeries, Pharmacists, council hosing offices open to the public, if they still exist or anywhere else.
A few months ago I attended a meeting hosted I feel by Healthwatch Sheffield, or a voluntary organisation on PIP/UC where 2 persons from the DWP where giving a presentation.
They mentioned that within the last year some additional areas were added to the PIP process, one including the opportunity to receive advance payments and other aspects to minimise hardship while claimants were in the application process.
This prompted a flurry of questions about, if this is so why are there so many reports of continuing hardship and even deaths being reported.
Their response that these were a small fraction of the cases going through and in the majority no hardships were being felt and that many of the reported cases were historic, being over a year or two hold and this will not be occurring now.As in many of these reported cases dates are not mentioned, their comment could not be effectively challenged.
Except they were asked, if hardship was now not being experienced and, at least, they appeared to be honest and advised that there were most likely some but may be less than 1% of the cases being processed.
This led to more questions on the lines of one case is one too many and they did go away knowing they had been challenged and promised to feedback on the points raised.
It is now approx two months since this meeting and I have yet to receive a note of any feedback, but to be generous we have had Christmas and New Year.
But i do fear that this promise will not be fulfilled.
So again no change there, so we all need to keep challenging at every opportunity.
Labour’s new DWP pledge is only a half measure | The Canary
Labour has clarified its position over a contentious Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) policy. But when you check it, it really doesn’t go far enough; potentially leaving millions of people worse off than they should be.
The DWP: freezing all over
In April 2016, the government brought in the benefits freeze. This meant the DWP would not increase the amount paid for some working age benefits until April 2020. It followed a cap on increases at 1% from April 2013. The benefits affected are:
- Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA).
- Child Benefit.
- Housing Benefit.
- Tax credits.
- Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work-Related Activity Group.
- Universal Credit (not disability elements).
The government said the freeze would save it £3.9bn a year. But now, Labour has moved on the policy.
Labour making moves
As Mirror journalist Dan Bloom tweeted, Labour’s position on the benefits freeze was unclear:
Source: Labour’s new DWP pledge is only a half measure | The Canary
‘This Government leaves people to starve’: Man with inoperable brain tumour has benefits stopped – iNews
A man who has an inoperable brain tumour has hit out at the Government after his benefits were stopped – leaving himself and his partner with £5 a week to feed themselves. Karl Riley says he’s living on the bread line since his Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and housing benefit were taken away three months ago when he moved in with his partner – whose income is just a few hundred pounds a month. The 32-year-old from Bolton has a growth embedded in his brain stem which has caused him to suffer permanent limited mobility, double vision, memory loss, confusion, extreme anxiety, depression, nausea, insomnia, tinnitus and facial paralysis.
You’re losing everything – but you don’t understand why : BBC News
A run of bad luck leaves one man struggling to make sense of the UK benefits system. Very soon he is left with no income and at risk of losing the roof over his head. Can he find his way through a bafflingly complex maze of rules? Put yourself in his shoes.
Your name is Tony Rice. You’re the sort of bloke who gets along with everyone. Always making people laugh. Ever since you left school you’ve been in and out of all sorts of jobs. Manual labour, mostly – builder, dustman, crane driver, painter and decorator. Hawker Siddeley, the aerospace company – you like it there, until the factory shuts.
You split up with your girlfriend so you ask your mum to put you up until you can sort out a flat. Save a few quid. You’re very close to your mum and dad. They’re your best friends, really. Your dad has lung cancer and needs a bit of looking after. You take him for a drive most days because he doesn’t like staying in all the time. He’s like you, not a man to sit about. At one time he worked three jobs, all at once. Still does half an hour each morning in the garden.
So you’re back in the council house in Chingford, north-east London, that you’ve
Source: You’re losing everything – but you don’t understand why : BBC News
LHA Maxima Cap (consultation) -Part 1 :Not just wrong but dangerous – SPeye Joe (Welfarewrites)
The current consultation paper on the funding for supported housing is not just a mess it is dangerous and in the four following areas: Is Sheltered Housing supported housing? Why no consultation o…
Source: LHA Maxima Cap (consultation) -Part 1 :Not just wrong but dangerous – SPeye Joe (Welfarewrites)
The new benefit cap will not only make people poorer – it will harm their health
For many families living on very low incomes who rely on state support to help pay their rent, it’s just got even harder to make ends meet. A new benefits cap was introduced on November 7 in Britain, lowering the maximum amount of social security that families are now able to receive from the government in a single year from £26,000 to £20,000, with a higher rate of £23,000 for those who live in London. This change is not being phased in gradually: it is an immediate reduction that will leave many of the estimated 88,000 affected families struggling to pay their rent.
The new cap will exacerbate the social and economic fallout from Britain’s housing affordability crisis because many of those affected will be living in high-rent areas. Around 20% of those experiencing reductions under the new cap are estimated to live in London.
The new benefits cap will make a difficult situation worse. Since 2010, the number of people seeking assistance because they are homeless has steadily risen in the UK. In 2015, 43,000 households were forcibly evicted – the highest number since records began in 2001.
Source: The new benefit cap will not only make people poorer – it will harm their health
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