BENEFIT BOMB FOR CITY HOMELESS
Glasgow charity warns services face losing more than £4m
MORE than £4million could be lost by the city’s homeless as a result of impending changes to the welfare system, a Glasgow charity has warned.
A HOMELESS charity has said Glasgow’s most vulnerable are suffering after it was predicted homelessness services will haemorrhage over £4million due to an impending change to the welfare system.
Glasgow City Mission has called for the DWP to rectify an “anomaly” in claiming housing benefit after it was discovered many of the city’s homeless are applying for universal credit by mistake.
Instead of applying through the DWP for housing benefit 73 claims were wrongly made for universal credit. And, with the benefit service not allowing this mistake to be resolved after it is made, temporary accommodation for the homeless went £143,883 into arrears from July 2015 to December 2016.
Grant Campbell, the chief executive of Glasgow City Mission said: “Sadly this appears to be yet another example of a system designed to trip people up and penalise society’s most vulnerable.
“These further cuts to the welfare budget for Glasgow will have a severely negative impact on people affected by homelessness and poverty and ultimately cost society more money in the long term by placing additional pressures on housing, healthcare and other vital social services.
“We call on the DWP to resolve this system’s anomaly as soon as possible so that it does not create further difficulties for those who are already deeply disadvantaged and struggle to navigate this highly complex process of receiving what, legally, they are entitled to.”
It was also revealed the annual shortfall in rental payments for homeless accommodation is just over £1.5m as claimants apply for housing benefit which comes to only £166.60 per week.
The cost for a week’s rent in temporary accommodation in Glasgow was £184.20 before April this year.
But those who filled out the forms for universal credit only received £134 a week. The report from the council’s chief officer of the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership went on to predict the annual shortfall will almost triple to £4.4m when the switch is made to universal credit.
Universal Credit was partially introduced in Glasgow’s single claimants in June 2015 with the full roll-out planned to commence in September 2018.
Glasgow City Council has since acted to reduce the cost of temporary accommodation to align with the amount of housing benefit an individual can receive.
The council’s executive committee agreed to reduced the weekly charge to £135.17 – a reduction of nearly 25 per cent. This change was brought in at the beginning of April this year. The council have also agreed to save £1m within the homelessness service and provide an additional £2m to eliminate the deficit for 2017/18.
A DWP spokesman said: “We are working with local authorities to ensure the small number of Universal Credit claimants living in emergency temporary accommodation are fully supported, including looking at new exemptions for those who are made homeless.”