“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” 

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