Government planning to scrap housing benefit for under 25s

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested the Government is looking at scrapping housing benefit for the under 25s making them move back with their parents in a bid to make further cuts to welfare expenditure.

The idea was first mooted back in April but was met with outrage from charities who said many young people simply don’t have family and friends to fall back on if they lose their job.

Mr Cameron told the Mail on Sunday it was part of a move to readdress the balance that saw some young people living with their parents, working hard but getting no state help, while others left home, made little effort to seek work and relied on state support for housing.

He said that with the current welfare system the Government was sending out "strange signals on working, housing and families".

He is expected to announce the Government is formally looking at the measure in a speech tomorrow which will set out further reforms to ‘working-age benefits’

Other areas being looked at include tougher measures for those on jobseekers allowance who are not actively seeking work. Many of his ideas for change are for the next Conservative manifesto not the coalition Government.

The Government has already capped housing benefit in the private sector, and, from next year, will cap household benefits to £500 a week.

Scrapping housing benefit for the under 25s is expected to save £1.8bn a year and affect some 380,000 people. It's understood the Government will ensure there are exemptions for special circumstances.

Traditionally, under 25s have been given a significantly reduced “shared accommodation” rate of housing benefit, on the basis that they should share a flat or a house with other adults.

The Government has already extended the shared accommodation rate to all single claimants aged under 35 – forcing those people into shared accommodation.

However, they will face a challenge scrapping it altogether for the under 25s as their Lib Dem Coalition partners want to let the current round of welfare cuts "bed in" before taking any further decisions.

Further cuts to the welfare budget were announced by George Osborne in the Budget.

He said: “If in the next spending review we maintain the same rate of reductions in departmental spending as we have done in this review, we would need to make savings in welfare of £10bn by 2016."