This week we will be running a series of articles on the impact of the Government’s cut, this April, in the spare room subsidy.
An extensive piece of research that I have undertaken shows the change has already had a significant impact in reducing welfare dependency. Faced with the prospect of having to contribute towards their rent out of their own money tens of thousands have been prompted to get a job and come off benefits altogether.
I put in Freedom of Information Requests to all the councils that adminster Housing Benefit to ask how many of those affected by a cut in spare room subsidy had come off Housing Benefit altogether. 141 councils provided the figures. 25,238 had come off benefits of the 233,732 affected. That is nearly 11 per cent. It the same applies in the rest of the country it means 71,000 of the 660,000 affected nationally have already come off benefits altogether. The evidence is clear: The cut in the spare room subsidy is already proving to make a crucial difference in rewarding work.
Remember these figures are just for those who have come off Housing Benefits completely. There will be many more who have taken a few hours part time work to earn the extra money needed to stay put. As benefits “taper off” that will meant still receiving some benefits but a reduced amount.
There are some caveats. Not every council responded. We only have figures from a third of them. However they include a pretty broad mix – small districts as well as big cities, Scottish and Welsh councils as well as English ones, affluent places as well as poorer areas.
Another point is that some people would have come off benefits even without this under occupancy penalty having been brought in. There has been a general fall in unemployment since April so some of these people whould have found work anyway. However were especially entrenched on welfare and so previously found work particularly unrewarding.
It should also be noted that councils have their own ways of gathering and measuring data. While getting a job is the usual reason for coming off benefits – there are sometimes others – emigrating, or moving back home with parents, or having been caught out having made a fraudulent claim, etc. On the other hand some councils will have underestimated as they will only have included council housing tenants rather than housing association tenants. Or they will have only included those who gave specified they had found work as their reason for ceasing to claim Housing Benefit.
These figures throw Labour’s costings into doubt regarding their proposal to bring back the spare room subsidy. It suggests that the savings have been far more than estimated. Well over a billion instead of around half a billion.
The Government modestly estimated that it would save about £540 million a year. That assumes that 660,000 households stay where they are, don’t change their behaviour, but simply find the extra £15 a week in rent (on average) by cutting their spending on other things. If, for example, someone got an extra four hours work a week at £10 an hour they would have enogh to cover the extra rent. Housing Benefit is cut by 65p for each extra £1 earned.
So this reform is not only about cutting spending but also about encouraging work.
How many affected by the spare room subsidy cut have come off Housing Benefit altogether?
Aberdeen 195 out of 1,888
Aberdeenshire 196 out of 1,179
Adur and Worthing 39 out of 211
Barnet. 228 cases out of 2,000.
Barnsley 462 out of 3,710.
Basildon 154 out of 1,120
Basingstoke and Dean 32 out of 1,538
Bedford 84 out of 1,116
Bexley 27 out of 1,421
Birmingham 1,021 out of 13,557
Bolsover 73 out of 679
Bolton 262 out of 2,384
Bradford 248 out of 4,983
Braintree 84 out of 833
Brighton and Hove 113 out of 886
Bromley 159 out of 1,900
Bromsgrove 178 out of 605
Broxbourne 22 out of 371
Caerphilly 355 out of 2,741
Cambridge 17 out of 693
Camden 126 out of 1,964
Cardiff 338 out of 1,822
Carlisle 242 out of 1,276
Carmathenhire 19 out of 1,580
Central Bedfordshire 275 out of 982
Charnwood 37 out of 536
Chelmsford 6 out of 719
Cheltenham 148 out of 769
Cheshire East 314 out of 2,295
Chichester 8 out of 233
Clackmannshire 44 out of 716
Conwy 38 out of 658
Corby 33 out of 818
Coventry 207 out of 3,186
Crawley 99 out of 971
Dacorum 117 out of 901
Dartford 35 out of 323
Daventry 67 out of 585
Denbighshire 135 out of 811
Dudley 584 put of 3,400
Dundee 229 out of 2,118
Ealing 133 out of 2,204
East Devon 24 out of 523
East Lothian 7 out of 972
East Riding 227 out of 1,528
Eden 33 out of 336.
Elmbridge 108 out of 471
Epping Forest 55 out of 568
Erewash 130 out of 593
Falkirk 613 out of 2,970
Fareham 29 out of 250
Fife 548 out of 6,174
Gateshead 341 out of 2,838
Hammersmith and Fulham 350 out of 2,925
Haringey 186 out of 2,503
Hart 28 out of 229
Hartlepool 146 out of 1,668
High Peak 37 out of 320.
Highland 280 out of 2,200
Hillingdon 210 out of 1,300
Hinckley and Bosworth 214 out of 712.
Hounslow 123 out of 1,400
Huntingdonshire 130 out of 882
Kensington and Chelsea 172 out of 1,100
Kirklees 372 out of 2,342
Knowsley 457 out of 2,847
Lancaster 103 out of 834
Leeds 527 out 7,307
Leicester 648 out of 3,944
Lewisham 241 out of 3,077
Litchfield 81 out of 532
Liverpool 300 out of 11,600
Luton 83 out of 1,138
Maidstone and the Weald 66 out of 840
Mansfield 79 from 1102
Merthyr Tydfil 84 out of 1,224
Middlesbrough 378 out of 3,032
Midlothian 237 out of 1,311
Moray 249 out of 665
Newcastle-under-Lyme 258 out of 995
Newham 201 out of 1,266
Newport 206 out of 2,470
North Ayrshire 244 out of 1,765
North East Lincolnshire 169 out of 1,300
North Kesteven 92 out of 637
North West Leicestershire 92 out of 543
Nottingham 800 out of 5,815
Oadby and Wigston 4 out of 147
Oldham 309 out of 2,334
Orkney 26 out of 100
Perth and Kinross 58 out of 476
Peterborough 116 out of 1,658
Poole 80 out of 635
Portsmouth 134 out of 1,298
Powys 288 out 1,229
Plymouth 300 out of 2077
Redbridge 69 out of 748
Renfrewshire 215 out of 1,800
Rhondda Cynon Taff 299 out of 3280
Ribble Valley 23 out of 136
Rochdale 515 out of 2,477
Rotherham 523 out of 8,000
Runnymede 5 out of 126
Rushmoor 129 out of 534.
Sefton 275 out of 3,666
Sedgemoor 119 out of 945
Sheffield 677 out of 7,386
Shepway 58 out of 331
Shetland 50 out of 170
Slough 75 out of 431
Solihull 54 cases out of 1,515
South Ayrshire 375 out of 1713
South Cambridgeshire 56 out of 360
South Derbyshire 0 out of 318
South Kesteven 19 out of 880
South Lanarkshire 465 out of 3944
South Norfolk 119 out of 548
South Staffordshire 4 out of 80
South Tyneside 472 out of 2,961
St Albans 31 out of 217
St Helens 564 out of 3,572
Staffordshire Moorlands 73 out of 408
Stirling 160 out of 822.
Stockport 132 out of 1,500
Sunderland 21 out of 4,988
Swale 64 out of 967
Swansea 130 out of 2,813
Taunton Deane 61 out of 700
Test Valley 69 out of 803
Tewkesbury 72 out of 508
Thanet 52 out of 658
Torbay 55 out of 575
Torfean 109 out of 1,639
Tower Hamlets 948 out of 3,000
Tunbridge Wells 45 out of 404
Uttlesford 28 out of 198
Wakefield 109 out of 5,600
Waltham Forest 152 out of 1,817
Wandsworth 165 out of 2,005
Wealden 17 out of 181
Welwyn Hatfield 148 out of 1068
West Berkshire 103 out of 743
West Devon 95 out of 211
West Lancashire 114 out of 1052
West Lindsey 113 out of 680
West Lothian 270 out of 3,289
West Norfolk 142 out of 1240
West Suffolk 85 out of 399
Westminster 90 out of 440
Wiltshire 4 out of 63
Winchester 78 out of 300
Wolverhampton 371 out of 3,857
Wycombe 91 out of 693
TOTAL: 25,238 out of 233,732