Families forced out by tax and benefits rules

Social housing woe for 180 households

MORE than 180 North East families have been forced out of their homes by the controversial ‘bedroom tax’ and benefits cap.

The shocking figures were revealed in new government data showing the number of people who started a new tenancy in social housing in 2017-18.

Social housing – reserved for those in the greatest need – can be council housing or housing owned by not-forprofit organisations.

Tenants either pay social rent – a lowlevel rent fixed according to national guidelines – or they pay “affordable” rent, fixed as no more than 80% of private market levels. Social rent is generally significantly cheaper.

All households who start a new tenancy in social housing are asked why they left their previous flat or house.

Here’s how many households in each North East who started new tenancies in social housing in 2017-18 blamed the “bedroom tax” and/or the benefits cap for losing their homes: Sunderland 47; Newcastle 45; Gateshead 24; Durham 22; Northumberland 17; South Tyneside 14; North Tyneside 13.

A Sunderland City Council spokesperson said: “The city council has been applying rules and regulations on the ‘bedroom tax’ following the Coalition Government’s Welfare Reform programme.”

The bedroom tax, or “removal of the spare-room subsidy”, removes housing benefits from those who are deemed to have spare rooms.

Tenants living in a property with one spare room can lose 14 per cent of their housing benefit, while those with two or more can lose 25 per cent.

Two children under 16 of the same gender – or two under 10 of any gender – are expected to share one room.

The benefits cap, meanwhile, limits the total amount in state benefits an individual household can claim per year. It started at £26,000 per year for a family, which was reduced to £23,000 in London, and £20,000 in the rest of the UK, in autumn 2016.

Both reforms came into force in 2013 under the then Conservative-lib Dem coalition government.

The figures count the number of households, rather than the number of people in those households.

A “household” can be a single adult, or a family of any size.

Nationally, 3,392 households who started a new social housing tenancy in 2017-18 blamed the benefits reforms for their needing a new home.

Polly Neate, chief executive at Shelter, said: “These figures show that the supply of social homes remains incredibly low.

“It’s clear we’ve hit crisis point, and this is nothing short of a national housing emergency.”