Wandsworth's Housing Benefit scandal
This weekend's Sunday Times featured on its front page a story about next-door Conservative-run Kensington & Chelsea council putting a homeless family in a £2 million townhouse that costs taxpayers more than £91,000 a year in Housing Benefit payouts .
Look at the detail of the story, and you find Wandsworth comes fifth in the league table for such absurd, unnecessary and totally unjustified benefit payouts, with Housing Benefit of up to £4,193 a month being doled out locally.
Following the Government's recently announced changes to Jobseekers' Allowance, Housing Benefit remains the last unreformed benefit - and one that is being exploited by Wandsworth Conservatives to the detriment of taxpayers.
Housing Benefit is paid by central Government - the council isn't responsible for administering it or paying for it. But Wandsworth is the largest landlord - by far -in our borough with over 16,000 council homes. A large proportion of council tenants (but by no means all) are eligible for Housing Benefit, which can either cover 100% of the rent, or in most cases a proportion depending on what other income you have.
Local Conservatives have seen these housing benefit payments as a source of extra funding for them and so the have ramped up council rents to among the highest in London. In pushing up their rents, they are actually making more people eligible for Housing Benefit and so worsening welfare dependency and increasing the bill taxpayers have to pick up. That they are also squeezing those tenants not eligible for Housing Benefit but hardly wealthy is not an issue that bothers them either.
But it should bother you because, ultimately, it doesn't really matter whether it's central or local government that pays the Housing Benefit bill - it's still you and I as taxpayers that pay the bill. How likely do you believe it would be that Wandsworth's rents would start falling sharply if the council had to find the money to pay for Housing Benefit itself?
The Taxpayers' Alliance said this in respect of the Kensington case: "The Council must work harder to find affordable accommodation and to more to stop greedy landlords from exploiting taxpayers' generosity." In Wandsworth's case, not only is the council doing everything it can to reduce affordable accommodation but it is also the greedy landlord.
Look at the detail of the story, and you find Wandsworth comes fifth in the league table for such absurd, unnecessary and totally unjustified benefit payouts, with Housing Benefit of up to £4,193 a month being doled out locally.
Following the Government's recently announced changes to Jobseekers' Allowance, Housing Benefit remains the last unreformed benefit - and one that is being exploited by Wandsworth Conservatives to the detriment of taxpayers.
Housing Benefit is paid by central Government - the council isn't responsible for administering it or paying for it. But Wandsworth is the largest landlord - by far -in our borough with over 16,000 council homes. A large proportion of council tenants (but by no means all) are eligible for Housing Benefit, which can either cover 100% of the rent, or in most cases a proportion depending on what other income you have.
Local Conservatives have seen these housing benefit payments as a source of extra funding for them and so the have ramped up council rents to among the highest in London. In pushing up their rents, they are actually making more people eligible for Housing Benefit and so worsening welfare dependency and increasing the bill taxpayers have to pick up. That they are also squeezing those tenants not eligible for Housing Benefit but hardly wealthy is not an issue that bothers them either.
But it should bother you because, ultimately, it doesn't really matter whether it's central or local government that pays the Housing Benefit bill - it's still you and I as taxpayers that pay the bill. How likely do you believe it would be that Wandsworth's rents would start falling sharply if the council had to find the money to pay for Housing Benefit itself?
The Taxpayers' Alliance said this in respect of the Kensington case: "The Council must work harder to find affordable accommodation and to more to stop greedy landlords from exploiting taxpayers' generosity." In Wandsworth's case, not only is the council doing everything it can to reduce affordable accommodation but it is also the greedy landlord.
Labels: Review of the year
posted by Stuart King at
07:58
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