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Housing campaign against welfare reform plans

Tuesday, 11 October 2011 9:31 AM

Changes in the Welfare Reform Bill will have "profoundly bad" consequences for some of the poorest people in the country, says the leader of the National Housing Federation (NHF).

In a blog written as the group representing housing organisations launched a Welfare Action Week, chief executive David Orr said thousands of hard-up families would face a stark choice if the plans go ahead: "either move out of your home to a cheaper area (and that supposes there is any such housing to be found) or stay put and live in hardship or debt".

The campaign is targeting three changes in particular:

- Plans to reduce housing benefit for social housing tenants who are deemed to have an extra room – or to "under-occupy" their homes.
- An overall cap on the benefits any one family can receive – set at £500 a week for a couple.
- Plans to scrap tenants' ability to choose to have their housing benefit paid direct to their landlord to cover their rent.

"Ministers will tell you there is no choice," said David Orr. "That's rubbish. There are always choices. We've heard a lot from the government about the ways in which some welfare benefits are 'not fair'. If ever there were changes that are really not fair, these are they."

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