Thursday, October 02, 2014

Middle income housing benefit claimants

According to research from the National Housing Federation, middle income households, those earning between £20,000 and £30,000, are becoming increasingly reliant on housing benefit.

The report says that two thirds of the housing benefit claims made during the last six years have come from households in that middle income bracket.

Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, David Orr, says "Our shortage of affordable housing is now leaving families on a decent wage unable to cover the cost of their homes," 

The data comes as part of the NHF's report Broken Market, Broken Dreams
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2 comments:

  1. M DavieOctober 6, 2014 at 11:17 AM

    I am glad to see this being highlighted. I work full time, yet to support myself, my three children and my partner who is currently too ill to work, my wage has to be supplemented by housing benefit to allow us to meet our costs. I budget sensibly, am responsible, have not missed a rent payment once in 15 years of renting various homes, yet am now discriminated against by landlords and letting agents as I receive housing benefit.

    Were it not for a personal friendship with my current landlord, when my previous tenancy ended due to the property being sold we would have ended up homeless as every landlord and letting agent I approached had a blanket policy of "no benefit".

    Surely it is worth looking at the overall picture of a potential tenant and their history, especially given the rising number of responsible working people on low wages who have no option but to apply for housing benefit. I personally don't see the situation reversing any time soon and it is a large swathe of potential tenants who are being automatically rejected.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 31, 2014 at 9:03 PM

    Most landlords don't really care if tenants are on benefits or not. They are concerned with the rent being paid and the property being kept in good condition.
    I have many tenants on benefit. I also have one who works. Guess who pays his rent on time. Yep the one who works. BUT this is not how it seems. His pay is made up of work and benefits which I didn't even know he received !! He budgets and as a result his rent record is perfect and doesn't even show where his money comes from.
    By the way nearly everyone in the UK is on benefits. Oh it might be classed as tax credits or pensions or even family allowance.

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