Housing benefit capped at £1,100 a week

Hundreds of out-of-work families who have been living in expensive homes at the taxpayers’ expense are facing eviction after changes to housing benefit announced yesterday. Alistair Darling said that from October next year the most expensive properties would be removed from the housing benefit calculation. Housing benefit, which can be as much as £1,800 a week, discouraged people from working and was unfair on those who accepted smaller, cheaper homes, he said. Housing benefit will be capped at £1,100 a week, meaning that 13,000 families, mostly in London, will have to move out of their current properties and into somewhere more modest.