ROOF Blog

Housing benefit should be converted to a £17,000 lump sum grant to enable poorer people to put down a deposit on a home, think-tank Demos has suggested. In a report, Recapitalising the poor, it argues that it this would help end the ‘culture of dependency’ that dominate poor communities. It also said that part of the income tax paid by low earners should be ringfenced and put into a private pension to remove them from the system of means-tested pension credit when they retire.

Meanwhile a book from the University of Warwick has found the UK’s housing market was ‘encouraged’ by the government. The investigation said the government wanted to meet the cost of support an ageing population by encouraging people to invest in housing assets as a way of accumulating wealth and making them less reliant on public pensions when they retire.

A disabled pensioner of 73 is sleeping in an armchair because of a lack of suitable housing association homes for disabled people in her area. Mrs Cunningham was moved from one flat after being told it was unsuitable and placed in another property that was deemed unsuitable for a wheelchair user. Torbay council says it has around 200 applications and takes up to 34 weeks to process the available Disabled Facilities Grant to update her accommodation.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is writing to 200,000 pensioners who receive pension credit to encourage them to contact their local council to check if they are entitled to help with the council tax or housing costs. Pensions minister Rosie Winterton said the government wanted everyone to receive the help they are entitled to, and some people on pension credit may not be aware that they can also receive help with their rent and council tax.

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 Homes and Communities Agency has released plans to encourage private investors, including pension funds, to invest in private rented housing. Around eight organisations thought to include two housing associations and a couple of pension funds have been in talks with the HCA about building new properties, although the British Property Federation has warned the initiative may not be enough without changes to stamp duty charges for large scale investors.

Pensioners have seen an average of £52,000 wiped off the value of their homes during the credit crunch. A report from propertyfinder.com shows that, overall, pensioners have seen their wealth drop by £220 billion, bringing the total value of property they own in England and Wales down to £800 billion. As many as 1.7 million pensioners – nearly 14 per cent – rely on property to fund their retirement, with many expecting to downsize and use the spare cash to pay for care costs.

Meanwhile, the over-60s are skipping meals to save money. One in five older people is skipping meals to save on food costs, and two-fifths are struggling to afford essential items such as electricity according to research by Age Concern and Help the Aged. Pensioners on low incomes face a higher than average inflation rate the report said, and miss out on up to £5 billion in benefits each year. The charity is calling for a package of measures including a commitment from the government to roll out automatic payment of income related benefits such as pensioner credit and council tax benefit.

Nearly one in three households, or eight million people, are seeing their cost of living fall as mortgage bills drop following the cut in base interest rates. This is an increase from just 2 per cent in September last year. Research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has found however, that there are stark differences among social groups – the biggest drop in the cost of living (3.6 per cent on average) is among the richest fifth of people under 35; whereas millions of others, the elderly in particular are struggling to make ends meet, as they are hit with an annual inflation rate of up to 7 per cent as food and energy costs remain high.

Age Concern has calculated that the rate of ‘pensioner inflation’ is, on average, 10 times higher for pensioners than non-pensioners. A total of 2.5 million pensioners live in poverty before housing costs, and 1.4 million pensioners live in ‘deep’ poverty before housing costs. Age Concern said even the 5 per cent increase in the value of pensions due in April won’t be enough to keep up with inflation increase for the over-70s.

Almost 200,000 vulnerable families and pensioners were underpaid mortgage benefits worth up to £11 a week because of a computer blunder it has emerged. More than 120,000 pensioners claiming pension credit missed out on £11 a week and 80,000 people on income support were underpaid by £7 a week, for at least two months. The payments would normally track the Bank of England base rate, however, the chancellor had previously standardised support at a set rate.