The number of people claiming some form of Housing Benefit has hit record levels giving a true indicator of plummeting living standards and high unemployment.
Housing Benefit (now called Local Housing Allowance) is paid to those in and out of work alike, as well as low income pensioners, those on sickness or disability benefits and lone parents. In London it has recently been estimated that 44% of housing benefit claimants are in work but on wages which leave them unable to afford to pay the rent . The only factor taken into account when assessing claims are income and savings, meaning that the number of people on housing benefit gives a good indication of how many people are poor in the UK.
And despite Tory lies about a million new jobs being created, the sad truth is that more people are poor than ever before. Recently released statistics (PDF) show that in February 2013 there were 5.08 million recipients of Housing Benefit, up from 4.74 million in May 2010 when this Government weren’t elected. This is the highest figure since Housing Benefit was introduced in 1983.
The truth is that any job creation which might have taken place has been workfare, low income self-employment, zero hours contracts or part time work, leaving unprecedented numbers of people dependent on some benefits to survive.
The figures also reveal that despite endless propaganda about benefit claimants living in tax payer funded mansions, the average housing benefit entitlement is just £89.30 a week.
Around a quarter of housing benefit recipients are pensioners, a figure which has stayed fairly stable over recent years. Pensioners are exempt from the recent vicious cuts to housing benefit, however 4 million claimants under pensionable age now face this vital benefit being cut due to the bedroom tax, benefit tax, benefit uprating bill and other measures.
Some of those people will be left with just a few pounds a week after paying the rent, whilst others will be driven from their homes completely. Almost every working age Housing Benefit claimant has been affected by the cuts. This means that not only are there more poor people than ever before, but that 4 million of them are now at very real risk of homelessness as incomes shrink and rent rises. A recent DWP report revealed how many landlords are in the process of evicting housing benefit claimants due to the cuts.
Iain Duncan Smith boasted over the weekend that he is prepared to make even further cuts to housing benefits, once again raising the spectre of ending the benefit completely for those under 25. Homelessness is already soaring and the Secretary of State is determined to make the problem even worse. The UK could look like a very different place in just a few years time as vast numbers of people lose their homes. The responsibility for that will not just lie with George Osborne and his fucked economy, but with Iain Duncan Smith’s reckless, bodged and brutal attempts at social security reform.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
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A walk down many high streets supports this piece. Empty shops, here today gone shortly temporary shops, descimated markets. Local economies stiffled. Food banks appearing.All speak elloquently of misery, abject poverty, and no cash to spend. Having work is no guarant
ee of affording to buy children’s shoes clothes and educational visits.
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IDS knows his days are numbered because of the endless stream of well-publicised problems coming from the DWP. When he says he’ll cut benefits even further he’s pleading for his job, telling Osborne he’ll be a good boy if they let him stay. They won’t.
@Johnny void Hi so what is this service charge that tenants have to pay landlords under the universal credit crap? I posted the PDF about it on yr previous blog
chewie.
i haven’t trawled through the whole doc…but it seems to be the exterior maintenance of buildings etc, service charges..as in blocks of flats etc…
Its the same as the current service charges charged, but put into the context of UC (although there might be some changes of what is/is not allowed) from a brief look, a summary would be…
“we can only cope with a single rent figure, add allowed charges to your rent figure so we can input one figure into the system (as we fucked up and didn’t think about additional allowed charges when we designed the system)”
Basically its maintenance/appliances/communal areas cleaning/water(if part of the rent charge)/etc.
As an aside, a studious landlord would be able to heap many additional charges that they currently don’t include (as they don’t charge for it, or its already hidden in the rent) as new charges to boost the overall rental figure and increase profits… eg, the rent (say 200PW) already includes general maintenance/repairs/etc as it was factored in, by now listing these as individual items on paper work (maintenance 10PW, communal areas cleaning (30PW) and adding them to the un-changed rental figure the landlord can now get 240PW, kerching!
From ‘The Body Economic’ by David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu :
“Austerity’s advocates have ignored evidence of the health and economic consequences of their recommendations.
Ultimately austerity has failed because it is unsupported by sound logic or data.It is an economic ideology.It does great harm-punishing the most vulnerable,rather than those who caused this recession.”
Read this book and recommend it;it blows apart all the lies peddled by the ConDems and their fellow shock doctrinites.
Universal Credit is crashing and burning as I type these words. It’s finished in all by bullshit. I would imagine that IDS will be willing to strike any kind of a deal with the Devil to try to keep this project going, unable to accept defeat or that his legacy will be one of incalculable failure.
Surely though if Iain Duncan Smith really did try to cut housing benefit to the under 25s or limit child benefit to the first two children in families the Liberal Democrats would be up in arms; it would spell the end of the Coalition, surely, and possibly even trigger a general election if the Tories pushed it to the limit?
Or the Lib Dems may just roll over yet again and help the Tories further destroy the weakest and most vulnerable people in society.
@R33 thats the libdems just doing their job….
The Lib Dems give poodles a bad name.
“Unemployed Texans will now have to pass drug screening to get benefits”
http://now.msn.com/texas-oks-drug-tests-for-unemployment-benefits-but-not-welfare
The Tories would love to introduce that here, forcing unemployed men to get their equipment out to piss in a jar in front of everyone and forcing unemployed women to squat over a jar in the middle of the sanction centre to give their urine sample.
@R33 i see jeremy hunt has backed down over capping GP appointments he said its never been tory policy to do so..which is not true… he says on twitter that 38 degrees who set up petition to stop it isnt neutral.. yeah i know that ‘hard left’ organisation that sky news called them which is ironice seeing that jezza hunt is a murdoch placeman..
Just a temporary tactical retreat like the “listening exercise” scam Lansley and Cameron used. They’ll soon try to bring it in again.
@R33 the reason they floated was really to screw up Atos WCA appeals..GPs were already worried about this happening and said so, lets not forget that by cutting down GP visits less people will use the NHS thus making sure richard branson and the privates can cherry pick the easier patients to treat.thus saving them money..
there is virtually no local economies left….some still exist…where value can be added to local produce…and the local area has other attractors..and intrinsic wealth within the area to sustain the local economy..say in the off peak…the overall picture is bleak, to say the least..and the resultant loss of income..causes unemployment and incomes to plummet…the moral poor have been left to pick up the tab…of disastrous and deliberate policies..inflicted on the working class, moral poor..and in particular 1979>and more and more people are forced to reach for their entitlements of benefits…this government, as recent successive govts..continue to put all of their eggs in one basket…and local economies mainly collapse….madness..ness, means head land…they are cuckoos…
ps unemployment soars…instead of rent caps…rents soar, as greedy landlords capitalize on the fear of becoming homeless…rents, one of the many new, immoral investment pigs…to squeeze out every last drop of blood, from tenants…then new tenants moved in…there is a great need for a social housing revolution i britain..low cost affordable self build…pigs will fly!
Disgusting excuse for a human being, proof if any was needed that being rich does not equal intelligence, Fat cow needs to take a long look in a mirror. – http://dailycurrant.com/2013/05/28/gina-rinehart-calls-for-sterilization-of-the-poor/
I’m assuming you realise that the dailycurrant is a satire website?
kittycat58…it is a spoof..but she does claim that workers should be, paid 2$/day as in africa…however the extrapolation to eugenics, who knows?
Reblogged this on kickingthecat.
@donkey @jonathan wilson yeah a neat way to charge what the feck they can get away with.. a bit like my housing association landlords who have never given me a written reply about what ”service charges” are..unless the they mean the laundry room which was out of action for 6 months because it was deemed DANGEROUS!! but they happily still charged us for it….
btw way in that PDF i was amused by the ”exempt from service charge” if you occupy a TENT !!!!!!….
“I don’t agree with the socialist thing where they praise everything rather than praising hard work. I’m proud that we are now represented by David Cameron rather than Gordon Brown. I voted for him.” – Woolwich attack “hero” Ingrid Loyau-Kennett
Unfortunately too many people in this country agree with and wholeheartedly support what the fascists are doing to us and would love to see them go much further.
r33
martin niemoller…”first they come for the socialists..i was not a socialist, so i did out speak out………”
ps typo…”so i did NOT speak out..”
:@donkey yes you did/no you didnt..@a4e sucks disaster looms? is that what they use to make cheap clothing?
@donkey i think david cameron is doing a fine job..btw who is david cameron..does he still work at the chippy?
…until someone they love, possibly even themselves, become sick, unemployed, etc. Then they’ll soon change their tune. Trouble is, by then it may be too late to turn back the tide. The UK is fast becoming a fertile ground for a fascist party to come along and exploit. Let’s hope UKIP isn’t that party! Especially if they run a future coalition with the Tories!
And re: johnny void’s last bit about “The responsibility for that will not just lie with George Osborne and his fucked economy, but with IDS’s reckless, bodged and brutal attempts at social security reform”, to that you could add “and with Lord Fraud, who changed the relationship between Claimant and State to an adversarial one in his days with New Labour before he jumped ship to the Tories (a logical progression if ever there was one!)”. Or have I got him wrong? Did it start before him?
@timfrom it started when we had an electoral system…
timfrom… lucy reynolds, on health and social care bill explains where it all started
@R33 heres a question ..why is our ingrid telling us this?? or should i ask why is what she thinks of scameron being reported….weird huh? that same ingrid who studied modern languages on her way to looking for work ”in london” and MI5 who just happen to recruit people good at languages…
@R33 “I don’t agree with the socialist thing where they praise everything rather than praising hard work. I’m proud that we are now represented by David Cameron rather than Gordon Brown. I voted for him.” – Woolwich attack “hero” Ingrid Loyau-Kennett
hmm and there was me in past few days noticing this ‘welfare claimants are terrorists’ rhetoric….
All the more reason to suspect that it was a hoax, only a tory “plant” would come out with such garbage.
@kittycat this ingrid was going to london to look for a job she was 48 she studied modern languages..guess who recruits people with language qualifications? MI5….
Oh she’s a fraud ok, this is more of a plotline for Spooks – http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/27/woolwich-witness-ingrid-loyau-kennett
@kittycat so basil is her son then? ok well he does computer animation at sheffield hallam university…
Yeah, and she’s been on telly again today, claimed she “came to pay her respects” all the way from bloody Cornwall to look at a pile of wilting flowers? Train journey from Cornwall to London is approx 6 hours at least, draw your own conclusions, as it’s just a short walk from MI5 to Woolwich……..
Just found some of her son’s amimations & illustrations on google, the poses in most of them are very familiar,,that is they’re.just like the guy with the “blood” (food colouring ,more like) on his hands…
@kittycat there is a jewel theft one he made. And on his Facebook page a picture of him surrounded by star wars characters holding him him hostage.
@kittycat in fact the Facebook picture shows him on his knees hands on his head held at gunpoint by star wars characters . Aint that ironic eh?
Disaster looms…
the reason people may agree with the con/dems policies is because they are not fully aware of the facts just the lies they spout, but IBS will have to appear in front of a committee soon because of this and i for one cannot wait. .people are not claiming benefits because they do so well on them because they don’t they are claiming because there are no jobs but then being punished because of it .if you count the unemployed and those on in work benefits it comes to near 10 million households receiving some sort of state help what does that tell you about this country ,there are no jobs and what jobs are there they are low paid making it necessary
for people to claim benefits be able to afford to live . i have always voted conservative but this government has not got a clue they hare they are allowing global companies to pay the minimum tax the bankers keep huge bonuses and the government are taking a huge wage increase while hitting the poor over and over while there priorities are gay marriage and the EU most people are worrying where there next meal is coming from no i wont be voting conservative they stand for nothing i believe in
Lisers,
your right some people are not fully aware of the facts, they believe everything this govt tells them, perfect example is I was admitted to hospital over the weekend, vomiting up blood, (stress related) due to my recent diagnosis of a tumour on my pancreas, am awaiting major surgery, to have it removed, when I explained to the doctors & nurses who were treating me, that on the day of my diagnosis, 15th may, I arrived home to find a letter from my HA informing me that they are starting court proceedings from the 17th June, to evict me from my home of 25 years, because I am in arrears, I cannot afford to pay my bedroom tax, doctors & nurses I spoke to were shocked to say the least,
some of the female patients in the same bay with me, could not believe, that I have to pay £22 per week, most of them thought that amount was a months payment.
@pat as if the bloody govt give a shit you poor sod. ….
your right pat most people are not fully aware of the facts but you will find a lot of the haves dont care about the have nots and that includes most MPs
thanks bob, i missed your comments while you went awol for a short while.
@pat i got the hump..thats all…and i needed a break really also i post on other matters just as serious as this..btw we had the police where i live recently that wasnt fun either six coppers and an ambulance..i’m also struggling a lot with me trying to move home as that is twisting and turning ..
The last thing you need is this type of stress & the other patients’ belief that your bedroom tax was £22 a month instead of that sum a week shows that the goverments propaganda is working. Maybe now they they might take a dimmer view of this odious charge & that there is no allowance for individual circumstances.
Look after yourself , Pat, don’t let the buggers get you down
thank you kittycat for your kind words, i got a phone call today from our tenants community centre, great bunch of people who run it, they have set up their own food bank to help people in need, affected by the bedroom tax in our local community, they have included me to receive food parcels, i was in tears with gratitude from them, we have a wonderful community spirit in my area, this Govt should hold their heads in shame that it has come to this in the 21st century.
You’re welcome, Pat, & yes it’s an absolute scandal that in this day & age some households have to receive food parcels. The goverment should be ashamed of themselves, which as we all know, they’re not
…but it’s ok cos Ed Davey (energy secretary) says that it is “completely wrong to suggest there is some sort of statistical link between the benefit reforms we’re making and the provision of food banks”. Well, that’s me convinced!
@timfrom me too after all who needs to eat anyway..i heard theres plans afoot to pump vitamins into the air so we wont need to waste time eating , however tesco were concerned it would affect food sales until they realised they could sell tesco own brand ‘healthy option oxygen’ in cans.
@kittycat especially the trussel trust foodbanks all set up to make money..blimey they even pay proper wages to employees especially sales assistants begging the question ‘where does all the money go?’
@pat hang in their mate …your amongts friends here and it nice to see people help out when we are suffering….keep it going pat…
The Tory MANIACS are doing more damage to this country than Hitler ever dreamed of. How much longer before the Police and Army take our side, and this unelected Tory Dictatorship is removed by force?
Never.
On the 1 million new private sector jobs claim, creative accountancy has played an important part: outsourced public sector jobs. Further education and sixth form colleges were reclassified thus creating 200,000 private sector jobs. Magic! For more info go to 15th minute of the following BBC radio programme:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01sdw2d
And as if the Tory PSYCHOPATHS are not enough, we now have a new enemy to battle: Blue Labour:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22625849
So who the fuck is this Class Traitor Lord Glasman, and why does he hate the poor? Whatever his motives, one thing is certain, because of cunts like him I WON’T BE VOTING LABOUR.
@Landless peasant theyve got us right where they want us,,totally disconnected and vulnerable and no sign of leadership or hope,,,,lets form our own party then….
The Green Party manifesto sounds more Socialist than Labour.
@landless how about taupe party?
So who to vote for? The TUSC?
If every one voted at elections we might not be in this state, but who do we vote for now? Most of these policys were Labour ones, Ukip don’t like the unemployed and we would have to look further into their belifs. do we vote for more of these? Because that’s what’s left.
The Green party are going to cost people like me a fortune i can’t afford to put the heating on now, i don’t have a car,i cycle everywhere i can but i can’t see me voting green. So unless another party comes along with a real comittment for the people then it’s going to be a long and cold century!
I think the Green Party would be into developing new forms of producing energy that are more efficient, cheaper, and of low environmental impact. Green Party also believe in Nationalizing essential industries, i.e. Water and Energy companies. As for UKIP, I don’t need to look any further into them to know what they are about.
@Landless dont have too much probs with nationalization as such had enough of robbing bastards jacking up prices for stuff we used to own anyway…UKIP are a (bad) joke party…
thats the thing who to vote for next time round as all parties are merging into one as far as i can see,im afraid i might be voting for what ever one is going to look after me and mine but then again didnt Cameron promise to look after the poorest in society
@lisers123 cameron is looking After the poor. Yhe poor bankers the poor millionaires and poor second mansion owners
He’s certainly “taking care” of the poor.
Clive Lords been quiet of late? He should be in there cleaning up after the Fuck up disjointed bollocks for manifesto of “the big 3”
Disabled or lazy?
Is laziness a disability ? Yes i actually saw a blog on that..
When this disgusting right-wing coalition is eventually kicked out, Osborne, Duncan-Smith, Clegg, Cameron, Hunt et al should be put on trial.
They certainly should, just like the Nazis at Nuremberg, but they won’t because if you take a closer look at what’s probably coming from the next Labour government you’ll see they’re all in it together. Blue Labour conservative (with a small ‘c’) Socialism of Lord Glasman, Liam Byrne, Jon Cruddas, is also about destroying Welfare and in fact, the State’s role in civil life altogether, by the looks of it. I reckon Freud really works for this lot too, they’re all batting for the same side.
@landless of course they are all on same side..all got more money than sense…overpaid twats..
Roll on Sept 2014, when Scotland can escape the worst of these idiot policies,and elect a government that we vote for,at least if we make a arse of things,we decided to do so ourselves.
…and condemn those south of the border to Tory governments for eternity! Thanks a bunch, ya selfish, vindictive bastards!
timform…you are welcome!
You from Scotland, too? I’ll let you off as a)my dad lives there and b) you provided me with that Lucy Reynolds video (above), which I will look at when I get 1hr 15mins spare. I use the library computers (if I had one at home I’d probably never leave the house!) and we only get an hour per day and after dealing with my in-box there’s precious little time left over, so I’ll get back to you when I’ve watched it in about 5 instalments! Thanks, too, for turning me on to The People’s Assembly. Are they going to be fielding candidates at the next election? Hope so as they look like just about the only lefty hope on the political horizon right now…
timform….if you can afford the printing and get the libraries to double side,, there is a transcript of her interview….
ps i think that the peoples assembly…will be reactionary…to push them back in line and keep them there..
@donkey and all in the indie recently premier inn being used to house people..plus more mention of shippimg containers being used to house people..in fact borne out by my sw who has seen shipping containers being put to this exact use in areas such as elephant and castle…
chewie…there you are…
.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-22306838
@donkey premier inn shipping containers’ before long we will be shoved into these things only to be shipped off to a desert island..or sunk..
The Tories are driving tenants out of social housing and will probably drive people in temporary accommodation out next, so they can dump them in shipping container shanty towns and sell of the remaining social housing stock to their friends for a tidy profit. The shipping containers will probably be freezing in winter and boiling in summer a bit like a prison sweatbox, which is apt since they are criminalising homelessness.
@R33 just out of curiosity see if theres anything about exporting the homeless…..it would not surprise me if there were not plans like that..
r33…
yeah, all they need is g4s, and a “peace wall”…around them, to lock us in at night, for our own “safety”…”a charming residential property, of extreme character”…
“Cities Where Suburban Poverty Is Skyrocketing”
@kittycat sctually Her son basil has a middle rastern sounding name quite long too.
Baradaran, apparently it’s Iranian
@Kittycat thay makes sense actually as i knew an iranian games programmer and also computer graphics artist some years ago…they are into IT stuff…
Murray
Can Scotland move it’s borders to include the North East, I would rather be part of Scotland than Southern England.
fawkes…the greens manifesto does look closer to a socialist, manifesto, ie they claim that they will be representational, rather than dictatorial and renationalize all vital services and industry…tony benn is involved in the peoples assembly, might be worth a look at?
http://thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/
Maybe we can seek asylum in Scotland as refugees from Tory persecution?
r33…winters last right through summer…24hr daylight in “summer”….at least then, one can see the evil little bastards…the lesser kilted MIDGE…apart from the m8 belt..the place is virtually m/t…but we do have special water, that warms the heart on a cold winters night (even in a cold winters, summer night).
The arctic weather, incomprehensible accent and the wee beasties would be a small price to pay to escape from the Tories for good.
r33..
it is a place of staggering beauty…the damp air creates amazing visuals…takes ones breath away at times…catches one unaware…awesome place…but for bureaucrats….this may or may not change,after 2014…we must make it happen…
When will the bus be leaving?
Will there be scones for tea??
@ shirleynott
Yes and plenty of “special water” to wash them down with.
Are you referring to Midge Ure, obd? He seemed fine until he got together with Bob ‘Give me your money, NOW’ Geldof – never bothered anyone before then.
sn….i think any midge is an irritating bleeder! yeah, “feed the fcukin world”, that went well,dyt…we got some buses, even got roads, dwp jc+.. yes lovely pastries, deep fried mars bars…brown sauce on chips…anyway nothing i can eat, in that list! some places even get a mobile phone signal…and so i’m led to believe, digital tv, but i’ve not seen one…and it’s gonna rain, for a change!…
@donkey i still think live aid set against the back drop of me first thatcherism was curious
chewie..they all sought to “rebel”, and shock “mother” thatcher, and who is the bestest person…but along come freddie m, and stole the show…with his staggering visage…
I dont know what you are talking about…most people have no idea what they are on about …some blogs. Are filled with people talking rubbish..
guy mcfawkes !!
Can Scotland Annex Lancashire?
Employers fined by HMRC for minmum wage cuts…
Now what was that thing about ‘strivers’ ?
Oh yeah…
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22721889
Class action for the ECHR perhaps? – http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/133453
overburdendonkey
Thanks for that, i never knew about the peoples assembly in my area, whether peoples objections to austerity cuts is translated in government policy that will be of any benefit remains to be seen. Spending government money on getting people into work only reduces welfare spending not government spending overall ,which will probably be increased – swings and roundabouts again.
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I am 27 and work full-time. I would not object to housing benefit being removed from under-25s, since this will reduce state-funded pressure on the private letting market, in turn reducing rents for people like me.
And Now from the Torygraph a piece entitled ‘ Opponents of welfare reform might win if they werent so ‘politically correct’
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100209838/opponents-of-welfare-reform-might-win-if-they-werent-so-blinded-by-political-correctness/
“I’m all right Jack!”
I will tell my son and his cousins/friends, so they can all sleep easy knowing they will be reducing pressure on the private lettings market – even if it might turn out to not be feasible for them to leave home until aged almost 30. (After perhaps first borrowing £9,000 ish for higher education costs).
That’s fine though, (I benefited from a student grant but they’re so last Century now. Time marches on). Not certain how to present that contradiction in a positive light to them though (they’re not quite ready for this level of detail, thankfully). No doubt better informed people than me will be able to explain why it’s the ‘right thing to do’/the ‘only real alternative’ when/if it’s their time to shine …
Phoney figures used to scrap DLA..
http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/03/government-manipulated-dla-figures-to-try-to-justify-cuts/
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