How will the Housing Benefit cap affect disabled people?
Housing Benefit has now been capped at a maximum of £400 per week. Local Housing Allowance, a new type of Housing Benefit only for claimants renting from private landlords, will be calculated now at 30% of median rents rather than at the median local rent itself. Job Seekers Allowance claimants for over a year will have their housing benefit cut by 10%, as “an incentive to find work”. The cap may affect disabled people living in areas like London or the SE of Britain where rents are high. This is of particular concern to those disabled people who moved to London to access special services and treatments unobtainable in more marginal or rural areas. It may also discourage landlords from renting to social groups, such as disabled people, in receipt of HB. Moreover, economists, such as the New Economics Foundation, have argued that the root cause of the rise in Housing Benefit is the dramatic rise in rent and house prices across the UK, caused by a shortage of affordable and social housin
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