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31/10/10 :Big Housing Benefit cuts loom for 3700 Reading families, Labour warns:
Following from the revelations that cuts in Housing Benefit might force 82,000 families to leave London, and indications that some London Councils are block booking B&Bs in Reading and other regional centres, Labour housing lead Cllr. Deborah Edwards has released figures showing the impact of the cuts on tenants in Reading.
“Housing benefit was designed to help people on low incomes, either because of low wages or being dependent on income support or disability benefits, pay the rent and get a roof over their, and their children’s, head,” she says, “and if there is any shortfall between the Housing Benefit being paid and the rent being charged the tenant has to make up the difference out of that low income.
“The changes being brought in by the Coalition as from April 2011 mean tenants on low incomes in Reading will have to find £30 a month if they’re just in a B&B and more if they are in anything bigger.”
The number of Reading households involved and the gaps they may have to fill are in the following table:
| Property |
No.of HB Claimants |
Monthly Shortfall |
| 1 Room (Shared House) |
833 |
£29.71 |
| 1 Bed Home |
1012 |
£49.99 |
| 2 Bed Home |
1416 |
£44.55 |
| 3 Bed Home |
365 |
£50.05 |
| 4 Bed Home |
81 |
£118.98 |
| 5 Bed Home |
22 |
£440.62 |
* For source of these calculations, visit http://email-shelter.org.uk/57U-7VDZ-251S7U2YAD/cr.aspx
“VAT is going up to 20% in January,” Cllr. Edwards says, “and in April the rent demanded from 2900 needy Reading families will go up by at least £12 a week, and £110 a week for large families. It is not just in London that people will find themselves unable to afford somewhere they can live, and forced to move, with their children, to a cheaper town. And the changes mean about £2Million a year less being spent in Reading shops, which isn’t good news for our local economy either.”
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