Tories hit out at 'shocking' level of housing benefit » Housing » 24dash.com

The Tories highlighted official figures showing around four in 10 households in some areas receive housing benefit as evidence of a growing "dependency" on state help.

Data compiled for the Department of Work and Pensions showed the boroughs with the highest proportion of claims were East London's Hackney (41.9%) and Tower Hamlets (38.1%).

That was more than twice the national average of 17.6%, with London (23.2%), the North East (21.8%) and Scotland (19.3%) the highest-claiming regions of the average £81.03 a week support.

Almost half (45%) of claims were from households where people also claimed unemployment benefits, and claims rose by almost a quarter of a million from November to May as the recession bit.

The Tories said the annual cost of Housing Benefit had risen by £2.7 billion since 1997.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May said: "These are truly shocking figures and once again provide more damning evidence of Labour's complete failure to tackle welfare reform.

"Housing Benefit can provide valuable help to people in work or pensioners, but the reality is that for too many people it represents part of a broader picture of benefit dependency.

"We need to look very carefully at a system that results in almost half a community reliant on benefits."

Work and Pensions minister Helen Goodman said: "Theresa May's position is inconsistent. Only the Tories could call for more support for people on low incomes to go into work one week and criticise it the next.

"The fact is, housing benefit helps people both in and out of work. More than half of housing benefit recipients are not claiming out of work benefits - and include pensioners and many people who already have jobs."