Today sees the latest quarterly Housing Benefit statistics released by the DWP and for the first time in a new format which overtly hides previously accessible figures to compare with earlier months and years. Lets look atone such figure that the DWP tries to make inaccessible or hide in other word, the number of working people needing to claim housing benefit because wages are so low.
Since the May 2010 election
The overall claimant count has risen by 320,738 from 4.751 million to 5.073 million. Yet the number of working claimants has increased by 337,059. The working claimant figures were 650,551 at May 2010 and are 987,610 at May 2013 an increase of 52 per cent in numbers.
So as bizarre as this reads we see that: 105% of all new HB claimants since the election are working!
It means too that the number of unemployed and/or disabled households claiming housing benefit has fallen since the election. Yet far more significant is this means housing benefit is a subsidy for Britain’s low wage economy with the huge 52% rise in working people having a NEED to claim housing benefit.
The numbers of working households having to claim housing benefit has risen 337,059 in 37 months since the election to these latest figures at May 2013 or on average by 9,109 per month. If we follow that trend this means today in August 2013 there will be 27,327 more working people having a need to claim housing benefit. In numbers this will be 1,104,937 working households having to claim housing benefit because their wages are so low.
We have over a million worker households claiming housing benefit!
What an outrageous indictment on low pay Britain that is! Over a million jobs in Britain are only affordable because housing benefit is claimed or put another way without housing benefit employers in the UK would struggle to fill 1 million jobs.
Chart 1 – Working households claiming Housing Benefit Nov 08 – May 2013
Every picture tells a story!
SPeye Joe (Welfarewrites) 
Do you want to know about good homes in speke being destroyed instead if using them to rehome many single people or couples for those waiting on waiting list or wanting to downsize their home because of bedroom tax
most so called businesses in the uk are just low paid and are just crap jobs
the uk has always allowed bad business practises owing to high unemployment but over the past 3 years this has got out of control and costs vast amount of money like HB /tax credits to prop up
we need a system that will highlight a bad low paid business that treats it’s staff with complete disregard so that as people grow up they will know first hand of the businesses to avoid and to encourage good business ethics by way of a tax reduction
why should a good business pay the same taxes as a bad one it makes no sense
business leaders of low paid crap jobs should be told that you need top pay your staff more as the country cant afford to keep topping your business up with tax credits etc
as failure to do so will make you forbidden to run a business in the UK
with a PS the slave days are over treat your staff well and not just yourself
even some virgin staff claim tax credits HB this is plain crazy with a billionaire chairman and he is just one of many living a good life at the expense of some low paid staff
Reblogged this on Sociology + Social Policy = Sociopolocy and commented:
Speye demonstrating once again just how badly the incumbent government has cocked things up for the country.
Isn’t the rise in working family claimants also due to high rent levels? If I were running this country I would give unemployed people jobs building new social housing to stimulate the economy and bring down the cost of working families’ rents.
What do we want?
Rent Controls!