‘Benefits cap is driving the poor back to work’ The Daily Telegraph reports …

Black Triangle member Liam Sean McKnight writes:
 
Lord Freud in The Telegraph:

“This research gives us an early insight into what is really happening and it shows the many scare stories about the effects of housing benefit reform are simply not materialising.” 

This is what the report actually says:

“One cannot, therefore, generalise from the survey findings to assume this represents an accurate national picture of the impact of the LHA measures” 

Liam concludes that:
 
“The Telegraph article ignores the fact the researchers themselves say that nothing can be extrapolated from their study, amongst other caveats.”
 
S.r. Williams also comments that:
 
“This ignores the simple fact that 7 out of 8 housing benefit claimants are in work already! I’m sick of out of touch millionaires lecturing us about things they cannot even begin to understand.”
 
(After reading The Telegraph’s report below, contrast with THIS REPORT in The Independent)
 
 
Lord Freud extrapolates that “This research gives us an early insight into what is really happening and it shows the many scare stories about the effects of housing benefit reform are simply not materialising” when the researchers themselves state that no conclusions may be drawn
By John Bingham, Telegraph Social Affairs Editor

Capping housing benefit has not driven poorer people out of areas like London but has prompted many claimants to look for jobs, the first study into the impact of the controversial scheme has found.

Research into the early effects of the policy also suggests it has even helped bring down the cost of renting, diverting less taxpayers’ money into the pockets of private landlords.

But it also shows that families on housing benefit have faced widespread reluctance from landlords to take them on. Ministers claimed the study, which involved almost 2,000 claimants affected by the first wave of benefit cuts, proved that “scare stories” were unfounded.

The Coalition’s plans to cap housing benefit payments have proved highly contentious and led to claims that they would lead to “social cleansing” in some expensive areas such as London.

As part of a wider plan to curb benefits, housing support for new claimants was capped at a maximum of £20,800 a year for families in four-bedroom houses from April 2011.

The Department for Work and Pensions said that some families had been receiving up to £104,000 a year, enabling them to live in expensive areas far beyond the means of most people.

In the study backed by the department, researchers from Sheffield Hallam University and the pollster Ipsos Mori interviewed 1,910 claimants living in private rented accommodation face-to-face as well as canvassing the views of landlords.

Two thirds of tenants said they were suffering a shortfall, meaning that their benefit did not cover the full cost of their rent. But a quarter of claimants who had a shortfall said it had prompted them to look for a job and one in 10 said they had been searching for better paid work if they were already employed.

In London, these rates were higher with more than a third responding to the shortfall by looking for work in addition to a further 20 per cent who were already employed but searching for a job with a higher salary and 14 per cent who increased their hours.

Of those who responded by asking their landlords for a rent cut, four out of 10 were successful. In London three out of 10 secured a reduction.

Only three per cent overall said they were forced to move house to make up a shortfall and the figure in London was only two per cent. Nevertheless, four out of 10 said they were having to cut back on essentials to make ends meet and a third said they had borrowed money from friends or family.

Lord Freud, the welfare reform minister, said: “We have capped housing benefit so that people can no longer claim over £100,000 a year to live in large houses in expensive areas of London. This is the right and fair thing to do.

“This research gives us an early insight into what is really happening and it shows the many scare stories about the effects of housing benefit reform are simply not materialising.”

The Daily Torygraph

2 thoughts on “‘Benefits cap is driving the poor back to work’ The Daily Telegraph reports …

  1. Humanity2012 says:

    We Need like Water and Food a New Government and an End to the Persecution of
    the Poor by this Filthy Worthless Planet Mars Cabinet of Gormless Millionaire
    Politicians

    It is the Rich who Need to Pay for the Crisis of Capitalism Not the Poor

    No to Millionaire Politicians in Office Yes to Decent Humans in Office

  2. Humanity2012 says:

    Far too Many People in this Country Deserve 10 out of 10 for Docility and
    Slavishness as Well as Selfishness and Staticeness

    Slavery was Wrong in the Past and is Wrong Now

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