The Government has denied that cutting housing benefit will cost an extra £120 million a year as Labour said the reforms would “hit every part of Britain”.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told MPs this week that research by homeless charity Shelter – which found that that councils would be forced to spend the figure on temporary accommodation for 35,000 people unable to afford their rents – were “ludicrous”.
The Government intends to cap benefits at a maximum of £400 for a four-bedroom property.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “We have had figures about the proposed changes from the Department for Work and Pensions, which confirm they will hit every part of Britain, and from the smallest flat upwards.” A benefit claimant in a one-bedroom flat in Glasgow would lose £7 a week, while 90 per cent of claimants in Yorkshire and Humberside would lose out.
Labour MP Tony Lloyd said around 70,000 claimants in Manchester would be hit. He attacked plans to cut people’s benefits by 10 per cent after a year without work: “Even in the relatively high employment times under the Labour Government, my constituency still had serious pockets of unemployment,” adding: “It is fanciful to suggest that no one on Jobseekers’ Allowance will be unemployed for more than 12 months.”
Mr Duncan Smith said housing rents under Labour had got out of control as the benefit bill rose by £5 billion since 2005.
But Mr Alexander replied that most of the rise was due to an increase in claimants, not rent levels.
