Welfare cuts: housing benefit claimants not welcome here - The Guardian (blog)
http://bit.ly/MAg69B
AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota "No blacks, no dogs, no Irish" was, apparently, a familiar sign hanging by the front doors of 1950's and 1960's boarding houses. In the era of welfare reform and chronic housing shortage, a new category of tenant has emerged that many landlords are refusing to have any dealings with: those in receipt of housing benefit. Hackney Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in east London had begun to wonder about this. It had noticed, over the past few months, a steady stream of local people coming to see them for help. Some said they faced eviction, others said it was impossible to find somewhere to live that was affordable within the new, draconian, housing benefit limits. So the CAB decided to investigate. It put together a team of five volunteers on 15 June to carry out a "mystery shopping" exercise to see what the private rental market looked like for people on housing benefit in the east London borough, using two of the main sources of private rented accommodation: the website Rightmove (used by letting agencies) and Gumtree (used by agencies and individual landlords). The findings are remarkable and depressing. They found 1,585 properties for rent in Hackney on that day. Of these, only 143 were affordable within housing benefit limits. That's bad enough. But they also found that of these properties just 14 - or under 1% of the available pool of homes - had landlords who were willing to rent to people on housing benefit. But that was not all. As the CAB explains: When we looked at just the family-sized properties (properties with two bedrooms or more), the picture was even worse. Out of 1,090 family-sized properties (from two to five bedrooms), there were just 36 properties (3%) within the limits and five of those (0.5%) with landlords willing to rent to someone on housing benefit. This picture astounded the CAB, which had originally intended to repeat the survey in six months time, with a view to seeing if the private rental market got tighter as benefit cuts start to impact. But Catherine Dempsey, Hackney CAB social policy coordinator told me she wasn't sure there would be any point: "The market is so narrow now it is hard to see how much narrower it can get." As the CAB adds, with a whiff of understatement: For anyone in receipt of housing benefit and looking for somewhere to live in Hackney right now, prospects are looking pretty daunting at the moment. So why weren't private landlords willing to let to housing benefit recipients? The CAB team found that many adverts simply stated "No DSS" (an interesting anachronism as the Department for Social Security, to which it refers, was abolished 11 years ago and replaced by the Department for Work and Pensions). But even those landlords that didn't openly exclude housing benefit claimants on the advert made it clear, when subsequent inquiries were made, that they "didn't like" them. Hackney CAB explains: Many landlords said they would rent to working people only, seemingly unaware that many people claiming housing benefit are actually in work. When we did find landlords willing to rent to housing benefit tenants, there were some uncomfortable questions being asked at the outset, in one case about nationality and family type. The perception that housing benefit recipients are jobless (and presumably therefore feckless and unreliable) is an pervasive myth, one encouraged by the "scrounger" rhetoric of the media and ministers alike. It's not clear whether stating "no DSS" necessarily breaks any laws, incidentally (for discussion see posts here and here). Either way, an estimated 30% of housing benefit claimants in Hackney are actually in work, but need top up help because of high (and rising) rents, and low wages. Housing benefit is currently paid direct to the landlord, which in theory assuages landlords' fears that tenants would otherwise spend it all on booze and drugs, rather than rent. But that all changes in 2013 under universal credit, when benefits will be paid direct to tenants. Some landlords, says the CAB, are pulling out of the housing benefit market precisely for this reason. Others argue that they cannot rent to housing benefit claimants even it they wanted to, because of conditions attached to insurance policies or mortages. Housing benefit reforms were, of course, expected to drive down rents, according to ministers. But these show little sign of falling in London, where demand is growing by the day (driven in part by housing shortages) and the areas of the capital affordable to housing benefit claimants are shrinking. Meanwhile, Hackney CAB found it is not just landlords that are cashing in on housing scarcity: One advert linked to a site which asked for a registration fee in order to access properties available to housing benefit tenants, with adverts for high-interest credit to raise the required deposit and rent in advance that everyone must pay in order to secure private rented accommodation. Another company linked through from Gumtree was advertising the provision of a deposit for a hefty non-returnable fee. The Green party London assembly member Darren Johnson, who has been keeping a close eye on housing benefit impact in the capital, raised the Hackney CAB findings at mayor's question time on Wednesday: Will you urgently raise the findings of this startling snapshot with the Government and press for a rethink on the benefit caps in order to ensure that residents of Hackney receiving benefits due to low wages, retirement, bringing up children, sickness, disability, or unemployment are able to access a wider choice of properties in their borough? Boris Johnson's written reply is expected by early next week. In the meantime, the housing crisis continues. View the original article here
http://bit.ly/MAg69B
AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota "No blacks, no dogs, no Irish" was, apparently, a familiar sign hanging by the front doors of 1950's and 1960's boarding houses. In the era of welfare reform and chronic housing shortage, a new category of tenant has emerged that many landlords are refusing to have any dealings with: those in receipt of housing benefit. Hackney Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in east London had begun to wonder about this. It had noticed, over the past few months, a steady stream of local people coming to see them for help. Some said they faced eviction, others said it was impossible to find somewhere to live that was affordable within the new, draconian, housing benefit limits. So the CAB decided to investigate. It put together a team of five volunteers on 15 June to carry out a "mystery shopping" exercise to see what the private rental market looked like for people on housing benefit in the east London borough, using two of the main sources of private rented accommodation: the website Rightmove (used by letting agencies) and Gumtree (used by agencies and individual landlords). The findings are remarkable and depressing. They found 1,585 properties for rent in Hackney on that day. Of these, only 143 were affordable within housing benefit limits. That's bad enough. But they also found that of these properties just 14 - or under 1% of the available pool of homes - had landlords who were willing to rent to people on housing benefit. But that was not all. As the CAB explains: When we looked at just the family-sized properties (properties with two bedrooms or more), the picture was even worse. Out of 1,090 family-sized properties (from two to five bedrooms), there were just 36 properties (3%) within the limits and five of those (0.5%) with landlords willing to rent to someone on housing benefit. This picture astounded the CAB, which had originally intended to repeat the survey in six months time, with a view to seeing if the private rental market got tighter as benefit cuts start to impact. But Catherine Dempsey, Hackney CAB social policy coordinator told me she wasn't sure there would be any point: "The market is so narrow now it is hard to see how much narrower it can get." As the CAB adds, with a whiff of understatement: For anyone in receipt of housing benefit and looking for somewhere to live in Hackney right now, prospects are looking pretty daunting at the moment. So why weren't private landlords willing to let to housing benefit recipients? The CAB team found that many adverts simply stated "No DSS" (an interesting anachronism as the Department for Social Security, to which it refers, was abolished 11 years ago and replaced by the Department for Work and Pensions). But even those landlords that didn't openly exclude housing benefit claimants on the advert made it clear, when subsequent inquiries were made, that they "didn't like" them. Hackney CAB explains: Many landlords said they would rent to working people only, seemingly unaware that many people claiming housing benefit are actually in work. When we did find landlords willing to rent to housing benefit tenants, there were some uncomfortable questions being asked at the outset, in one case about nationality and family type. The perception that housing benefit recipients are jobless (and presumably therefore feckless and unreliable) is an pervasive myth, one encouraged by the "scrounger" rhetoric of the media and ministers alike. It's not clear whether stating "no DSS" necessarily breaks any laws, incidentally (for discussion see posts here and here). Either way, an estimated 30% of housing benefit claimants in Hackney are actually in work, but need top up help because of high (and rising) rents, and low wages. Housing benefit is currently paid direct to the landlord, which in theory assuages landlords' fears that tenants would otherwise spend it all on booze and drugs, rather than rent. But that all changes in 2013 under universal credit, when benefits will be paid direct to tenants. Some landlords, says the CAB, are pulling out of the housing benefit market precisely for this reason. Others argue that they cannot rent to housing benefit claimants even it they wanted to, because of conditions attached to insurance policies or mortages. Housing benefit reforms were, of course, expected to drive down rents, according to ministers. But these show little sign of falling in London, where demand is growing by the day (driven in part by housing shortages) and the areas of the capital affordable to housing benefit claimants are shrinking. Meanwhile, Hackney CAB found it is not just landlords that are cashing in on housing scarcity: One advert linked to a site which asked for a registration fee in order to access properties available to housing benefit tenants, with adverts for high-interest credit to raise the required deposit and rent in advance that everyone must pay in order to secure private rented accommodation. Another company linked through from Gumtree was advertising the provision of a deposit for a hefty non-returnable fee. The Green party London assembly member Darren Johnson, who has been keeping a close eye on housing benefit impact in the capital, raised the Hackney CAB findings at mayor's question time on Wednesday: Will you urgently raise the findings of this startling snapshot with the Government and press for a rethink on the benefit caps in order to ensure that residents of Hackney receiving benefits due to low wages, retirement, bringing up children, sickness, disability, or unemployment are able to access a wider choice of properties in their borough? Boris Johnson's written reply is expected by early next week. In the meantime, the housing crisis continues. View the original article here
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