ROOF Blog

Anyone who starts work after six months on benefit will be at least £40 a week better off, under a guarantee yesterday by Yvette Cooper, the work and pensions secretary.

Other proposed changes to housing benefit aim to cut some of the highest rents the state pays for out-of-work people, and to reduce the immediate impact on rent payments for people moving into work.

In an employment white paper and housing benefit review, Ms Cooper confirmed a government promise of a job, training or work experience after six months’ unemployment for anyone aged 18 to 24.

Some 100,000 posts will be made available, including police community support officers, work in the NHS and probation service, and constructing a national cycle network.

Figures in last week’s pre-Budget report reveal 60,000 low-income families now face paying 90 per cent of any earnings directly to the taxman.

The number of affected families is up from 30,000 last year and is forecast to rise again to 70,000 next year.

The very high tax rates arise from complex rules that mean low income families have their benefits slashed if they take up work.

These so-called marginal tax rates – far higher than those faced by top earners – are blamed for discouraging thousands from seeking work.

Charities including Carers UK, Mencap and Alzheimers Society are among nine charities which have drawn up a carers poverty charter calling for better benefits for carers. The charities estimate that six million carers looks after family members or friends at home, but fewer than 500,000 carers actually get the allowance. They want an increase on the weekly carer’s allowance of £53.10, and greater support.

New research from the Business Development Research Consultants has found that private landlords are increasingly renting to housing benefit claimants even though they are concerned about the upkeep of the property and payments. The proportion of private landlords in Britain letting to benefits claimants more than doubled, increasing from 9 per cent in the last quarter of 2008 to 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. However, as many as 24 per cent of landlords said they were worried benefit claimants would not look after the property, 15 per cent said they’d had previous bad experiences, and 10 per cent said they were worried about payments.

Research has suggested that the tough policies designed to push asylum seekers out of the country by removing their support is simply forcing them to live on the streets, surviving on handouts. Last October, the Asylum Support Partnership counted almost 1,200 failed asylum seekers with no support or secure housing across the country day, from a group of 2,000 people found to be destitute with no housing or access to benefits or support. Half of these people came from Iraq, Iran, Eritrea and Zimbabwe.

In the three years since the 2005 general election, inequality in Britain grew at a faster rate than at any time since records began in the 1960s, figures from the Institute of Fiscal Studies reveal. The poorest 20 per cent of households saw real income fall by 2.6 per cent in the three years to 2007/08, while those in the top fifth enjoyed a rise of 3.3 per cent. The number of working adults below the poverty line rose by 300,000 to 11 million, the highest level ever. A spokesperson from the IFS said that the recession may see poorer households ‘regain some ground’ if benefits grow more quickly than wages, salaries and bonuses of the better off.

A report out today from the Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed that many people are not claiming benefits because the application procedure is too long and confusing. The report called for the DWP to move application forms and other services online and take steps to simplify them.

The Department for Work and Pensions will sign an historic arrangement with five other countries to improve cooperation in tackling benefit fraud, which cost the UK £800 million annually. The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland have joined the UK in the ‘Windsor arrangement’ which aims to prevent, detect earlier and provide deterrence against benefit fraud.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned that Britain faced ‘two parliaments of pain’ as it calculated a £45 billion ‘black hole’ in the government finances following the Budget, requiring either a tax rise of £1,430 per family or massive spending cuts. When the effect of the 8 per cent annual growth in debt interest payments and rising spending on unemployment benefit are taken out, spending across government departments will have to fall by an average of 2.3 per cent a year in real terms – the largest spending cuts since the 1970s. The IFS has calculated that by 2017/18 the losses will be the equivalent to £2,840 a year for every family, of which only half has been accounted for by the government.

The government is extending a hotline in Spain to dob in expat benefit cheats. It says that each year benefit fraud by Britons living abroad costs the UK taxpayers £63 million, and while official do not know how many people are making illegal claims or where they all live, they believe the majority of them are in Spain. Originally the hotline scheme was set up in Alicante, but will now be extended to cover the Costa del Sol and Canary Islands.