IDS and the Tories promised in 2010 to reduce the housing benefit bill by 2 billion pounds by this year. In fact calculations by Joe Halewood of Liverpool show that the bedroom tax, the overall benefit cap, the local housing allowance cap and the shared accomodation rate cap,the four policies used to reduce housing benefit have in fact increased the housing benefit bill by 230 million pounds a year.
This happens for several reasons. One is the fact that the number of private rented sector claimants is increased by 132,413 and they receive 21-17 more in HB than tenants in social rented housing. This is a huge subsidy to unregulated private landlords and accounts for 146 million pounds more a year.
Another is the fact the number of in work claimants, over a million of them, has increased by 443,841 a year. Again a huge subsidy to low paying employers amounting to 5.5 billion pounds a year.
A third reason is that LHA caps have driven people out of Central London to outer London, a diaspora which increases the housing benefit bill.
To conceal all this IDS and his Freud chicken team have resorted to terminalogical inexactitudes and claims that the number of bedroom tax eligible tenants is down b y 200,000. We don't know where they have gone but if it is so, the saving in bedroom tax would be 362 million pounds a year- yet IDS says it would cost a billion pounds to abolish it while Freud and the chickens claim the tax saves 480 million pounds a year. Whit cant either
The only important figure is the overall spend on Housing benefit and this has increased QED.
Thanks to Joe Halewood.
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