“GO HOME OR
GO HOMELESS”
Over 11 million people will be affected by
the Tory decision to cut housing benefits to
those under 21.
BY ABI GILSON AND
SIAN KISSOCK
A
s part of David Cameron and George Osborne’s
Budget announcement in 2015, plans were made
to strip those aged 18-21 of the ability to claim housing
benefit, which were set to come into force in April 2017.
The plans are thought to possibly affect an estimated
11,000 young people who cannot or do not want to
live with their parents. The government is hoping
to save £95million, which is only 13% of the
total that was spent on claimants in 2015.
The saving will be negligible but this
inability to claim housing benefit may
leave them desperate and sleeping on
the streets in dangerous situations.
The Department of Work and Pensions
said that the move is intended to
“make sure that 18- to 21-year-olds do
not slip straight into a life on benefits.”
On April 1st, there was a large protest in Westminster in
order to show the government that the plans needed to be
stopped, or rethought at the least. Organiser Pete Roberts
said that he was inspired after hearing reports regarding the
possibility of bringing back the government policy change.
He looked around for a protest but failed to find one.
“Myself and a few friends then decided to make one
of our own in order to raise awareness of it and stand
up for young people up and down the country. This
will affect thousands of people in complex ways.”
The Housing Benefit provided people
with security who may not
have had that support
in their home lives.
Pete tells Actus
that he had come
from an abusive
household which
forced him to
leave home at aged
16, from there he
relied on benefits and
housing benefits until he
was able to get sorted. For people
like Pete, the housing benefit operated as a means for
stability and when people lose stability then that is
when all kinds of crisis can occur for people, he says.
There is an ‘exemption system’ planned which wants
to ensure those at serious risk mentally or physically
are still helped, but this involves having to prove on
a daily basis that you are indeed homeless and in need.
Pete added: “They have mentioned that [the changes]
will not apply to vulnerable people and care
leavers, however they have not stated how
they intend to deem who is vulnerable and
who is not. This is something we cannot
trust the government to do properly.”
The official advice is that people under
the age of 22 should move back in with
their parents if they aren’t able to live
independently. Yet the Government is
likely fully aware that many do not have this
option; it is rare that childless, single, unemployed
young people move out of their family home by choice,
particularly in the current climate with the shortage
of affordable housing and poor economy. No plan has
been made to deal with other, more complex situations
either - what about if young people don’t feel safe or
confident disclosing their reasons for moving out of
their home to their parents or the council, such as if
they are LGBT? Pete says that the LGBT community
have been overlooked and failed by the government.
“Not everybody falls into a desperately vulnerable
situation but it is a sliding scale and there will be lots
of people slipping through the cracks
who are not supported by
the system,” he added.
So what can be done
to help? Keep a
look out for future
demonstrations
on their Facebook
page
‘We
Stand
Together?’ he says
that
participation
in
these protests will help to raise
awareness of the effects that these cuts are
having because, he says, the mainstream media managed
to slide it through the very agendas of who will be affected.
June 2017 | Actus | 7