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Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
The Tories removed rent controls. This means that any landlord can charge whatever any tenant is willing (or has) to pay to secure a home.
By 'rent levels' I assumed that you meant the contractual rent, as opposed to the LRR or LHA. The contractual rent is still needed, indeed the software that is used won't assess a claim without it!
But the present Government said that they would be turning this around and reducing expenditure on benefits (including Housing Benefit). Instead they have managed to cause suffering to many vulnerable people AND increase the benefits bill AND are borrowing more money to pay for it. They are borrowing more in total than Labour and the actual portion of government debt apportioned to 'the defecit' has decreased mainly as a result of lower interest rates.
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The rent could be just £1/week and somebody could still NOT be eligible for Housing Benefit. The AMOUNT of rent has NO bearing on whether a claim is successful or not. Rents could double overnight and the number of people eligible to claim would NOT CHANGE. As far as Housing benefits are concerned, limits WERE imposed by Rent Officers.
Housing Benefits costs ARE GOING down.
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A DWP spokesman said: “The housing benefit bill was spiralling out of control in the years up to 2010, increasing by 50% in a decade and forecast to rise further. Housing benefit spend has now actually fallen and our actions will have saved the taxpayer up to £6bn by the end of this parliament.”
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Should all public borrowing have been stopped?
People complain enough about "austerity". Just imagine the cuts required to have zero borrowing. Public spending budgets for 2010/11 Would have been set by March 2010, ie UNDER LABOUR.