Fewer than a quarter of people whose benefits will be cut by the government’s welfare cap will be able to mitigate the effect by taking on more work or moving to cheaper housing, the Local Government Association has said.
In an analysis of the government’s welfare reforms, including the introduction of the cap, the LGA found that households claiming benefits would be worse off by £1,615 per year by 2015/16, or around £31 a week, on average.However, the study, carried out by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion for the LGA, found that a shortage of jobs and affordable homes meant almost four of five households require assistance from their council to help them cope with welfare reductions.
Publishing the report, the chair of the LGA’s finance panel, Sharon Taylor, said that, in many areas, the jobs ‘simply don’t exist’ for those being hit by welfare reform. Opportunities for people to move to smaller homes to cope with reductions in benefits were also severely limited by a lack of affordable accommodation, she added. ‘Unless more is done to create new jobs and homes, households will be pushed into financial hardship and we will see a huge rise in the number of people going to their councils asking for help to make ends meet.’
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