ROOF Blog

The government is entitled to take legal action to recover social security benefits it pays by mistake a judge has ruled. In a test case at the High Court the Child Action Poverty Group (CAPG) argued that government has no power to seek to claw back overpayments where the recipient had done nothing wrong. However the court decided that government is entitled to ask for its money back under common law. Recognising that the decision would have wide-spread implications, the ruling judge gave the CPAG permission to appeal the decision.

Public attitudes to the welfare state have hardened during Labour’s decade in power, and even more so among Labour voters, a study by the London School of Economics has found. The study pre-dates the current recession, starting in 1996, just before Tony Blair took power. At the time 48 per cent of voters and 62 per cent of Labour supporters believed that unemployment benefits were too low and causing hardship. By 2006 only 23 per cent adults felt this and among Labour voters this had dropped to 30 per cent.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates that an extra £2.4 billion a year will need to be spent on tax credits if the government is to meet its target of halving child poverty. JFR says that 2.3 million children will be in poverty in 2010, missing the 1.7 million target set in 1999. The JRF also says that there has been a sharp increase in the number of children living in poverty who have at least one parent in work, suggesting that the recession could push many further below the poverty line because of increased unemployment.

Pensioners are failing to claim up to £5 billion in benefits Help the Aged says, despite the fact that one in five pensioners lives in poverty and is struggling to meet the rising cost of living. The charity is calling on the government to automatically pay benefits to those who are entitled to them, rather than making claimants go through the ‘convoluted claims process’. It is estimated that 2.14 million people – 45 per cent of those eligible – are failing to claim council tax benefits worth up to £1.51 billion. A further 1.82 million – or 41 per cent of those entitled – are not claiming pension credit and losing out on £2.81 billion.

According to research by the New Economics Foundation, when taking into account the practical and emotional risks of moving off benefits and into insecure or low-paid work, the incentives for homeless people to enter work disappear. The report recommends the government looks at paying incentives to homeless people to test whether sustained employment and savings can be made, and suggests that employers should review the use of casual labour. The report says that government could save £425 million a year helping homeless into more secure forms of employment.

Ahead of today’s second reading of the Welfare Reform Bill, former welfare minister Frank Field is arguing that young single people between the ages of 16 and 24 should be required to work to receive benefits, and if they fail to find a job, they should lose their entitlement. He has derided the bill, which he says will not do enough to overhaul a system costing a ‘staggering’ £75 billion.

The government’s new ‘take up taskforce’ is asking local authorities to show how they are tackling child poverty by persuading parents to take up tax credits and benefits. The taskforce is asking for evidence of local services success in encouraging families to claim support.

In a case highlighting the ‘perverse nature’ of the housing benefit which allows claimants to live in subsidised properties that most taxpayers could not afford, a family of five has been place by their council in a £2 million property, costing more than £91,000 a year in rent. Figures released under Freedom of Information show that there are five local authorities in the country paying rent totalling more than £50,000 a year. Most of the top paying councils are located in London, but include other areas such as Exeter and Slough. The councils with the highest proportion of people on housing benefit are also located in London – Hackney comes top with 38.9 per cent of the population receiving housing benefit, followed by Tower Hamlets with 38.1 per cent. Outside London, Manchester rates highest with 33.7 per cent claiming benefit.

The government’s spending watchdog the Audit Commission warned that the recession and rising unemployment will cause a wave of social problems in the coming year. The commission found the recession is already causing more homelessness in one-third of local authorities, while two-thirds predict the problem to worsen next year. The report said that the slowdown in house building, due to a cut in local authorities’ funding, had reduced the amount of new social housing and therefore the number of social properties available to let. Two-thirds of councils have reported an increase in applications for housing and other benefits.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) the Labour government has reversed the rise in numbers of families claiming benefits during its 11 years in power. Under the Conservatives the proportion of families reliant on the state for the majority of their disposable income rose from 25 per cent in 1979 to 31 per cent in 1996/7. This figure has now fallen back to 28 per cent in 2008/9, reflecting the greater number of people in work as well as the growth of private pensions the IFS said.