Cameron targeting social housing entry age with benefit bill assault

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

Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith says the prime minister’s discussion on the principles of who should receive welfare support is partly focusing on the average age at which people enter into social housing, currently at 21.

David Cameron has suggested removing the automatic right to housing benefit for the under 25s - as part of his second assault on the welfare bill - but in future, the Government may also look at ending the automatic right to social housing for this group, Duncan Smith (pictured) said.

Cameron is set to call for a wider debate about welfare today in a speech in Kent.

Speaking today on BBC Radio 4, Duncan Smith said the prime minister was trying to “build on current reforms” – some of which haven’t even come into force yet, such as the £500-a-week household benefit cap from April 2013.

He said: “He’s trying to build on that. Once we get to the end of this Parliament, after we’ve created all of this, the question really he’s asking himself, and asking for a general discussion on, is, on the back of all those changes and reforms that we’ve brought in, where then on working age benefits?”

Following concerns that the Government would be hitting young people in low-paid work, also receiving housing benefit, or those who have been made unemployed, he said these were the details about the debate the Government was engaging in.

He said: “The thing about housing is we’ve noticed and seen that the age at which people enter social housing is younger than it used to be. It’s on average 21 years old. The question [David Cameron] is posing, and one which I think is quite genuine, is to what degree is this caused by families realising, that to some extent, they can get a child of theirs into social housing if they’re no longer living at home, whereas other families not on benefits actually retain those people at home and say ‘stay here, work here until you’ve got enough money to buy a house’.”

He said this was not about “blaming those people”. “It was politicians who set these up,” he said.

He added: “He’s posing the questions as to what degree someone should have an automatic right to housing once they get to the age of 18, or, in some cases, younger than that, but for the most part past 18.

“He will be very clear that whatever we make as changes to these things, these are the principles for debate – questions about whether somebody should automatically have a right, for example, to social housing below the age of 25, whether someone should automatically have the right to support for their children, regardless of what their circumstances are and size. The details, of course, we have to be careful about and be sensitive to, but this is the principle he’s debating.”