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Why do they have to pay ?
Poorest set for 'perfect storm' on benefit cuts: the low-paid, disabled and jobless
will be hit hardest
Millions of households will struggle as low-paid workers, disabled people and the
unemployed bear the brunt of welfare reform, according to analysis by the housing
charity Crisis. It warns that homelessness will rise and queues for food banks will get longer.
The new measures coming into force tomorrow include the so-called bedroom tax,
which will mean housing benefit cuts to social housing tenants deemed to have
a spare room. This will affect 660,000 households at an average loss of £14 a week
, according to Crisis.
The policy is provoking a bitter response, with thousands attending more than 50 bedroom
tax protests in towns and cities across the country yesterday, including London,
Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol and Cardiff.
Housing benefit cuts for those with spare rooms is just one of 10 welfare changes
identified as creating a financial "perfect storm" for the country's poorest.
These include a reduction in council tax benefit for most of the 3.7 million low-income
households that receive it; the introduction of a benefit cap which will see 56,000 households
losing an average of £93 a week; the abolition of crisis loans and community care grants;
the replacement of the Disability Living Allowance with the Personal Independence
Payment (that half a million fewer claimants will be eligible for); and the removal of
legal aid for welfare advice.
