Labour is calling on the government to urgently scrap its cap on benefits in order to avoid a wave of evictions for rent arrears.
In a letter to employment minister Mims Davies, Labour frontbencher Seema Malhotra warned that the month-long extension of the moratorium on evictions announced on Friday would only delay the inevitable for thousands of families unless the cap was also lifted.
Official figures released earlier this month showed a “shocking” 93 per cent rise in the number of families hit by the cap during the coronavirus pandemic, with households losing an average £248 a month, she said.
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The cap – which limits a household’s total annual benefits to £20,000 a year or £23,000 in London – meant that many of these families were missing out on the temporary uplift of universal credit and local housing allowance introduced by ministers to help disadvantaged households cope with the impact of Covid-19, said the shadow employment minister.
Unless it is scrapped, she warned that tenants will receive only brief and temporary relief from last week’s announcement of an extension to 20 September of the ban on evictions and a new requirement for landlords to give tenants six months’ notice.
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1/50 25 AugustAn assistant at the Wallace Monument cleans the case which houses the William Wallace sword in the Hall of Arms room at the monument near Stirling as they prepare to re-open
PA
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PA
2/50 24 AugustRestored World War Two landing craft LCT 7074 is transported from from the Naval Base in Portsmouth to its final resting place at the D-Day Story at Southsea
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6/50 20 AugustParents and a student react after checking GCSE results at Ark Academy in London
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PA
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EPA
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21/50 5 August 2020Pakistan’s Abid Ali being bowled by England’s Jofra Archer during day one of the First Test match at the Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester
PA
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Rex
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Getty/ECB
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Getty
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Pool via Reuters
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AFP via Getty
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PA
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35/50 22 July 2020Liverpool’s English midfielder Jordan Henderson lifts the Premier League trophy during the presentation following the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield in Liverpool. Liverpool on Wednesday lifted the Premier League trophy at the famous Kop stand at Anfield after their final home game of the season
AFP via Getty
36/50 21 July 2020Vivienne Westwood demonstrates outside the Old Bailey in support of Julian Assange in London
Reuters
37/50 20 July 2020Comet Neowise in the skies over the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire
PA
38/50 19 July 2020Mods and rockers unite on Madeira Drive, Brighton, for a demonstration to call for the reopening of the road which Brighton & Hove City Council plans to keep closed permanently
PA
39/50 18 July 2020People enjoy the sunny weather at Painshill, an 18th century landscape garden in Cobham, Surrey
PA
40/50 17 July 2020Captain Sir Thomas Moore receives his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth, during a ceremony at Windsor Castle
AP
41/50 16 July 2020Red Arrows do a flypast during the Graduation Ceremony of the Queen’s Squadron at RAF College Cranwell, Lincolnshire
The Daily Telegraph/PA
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PA
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PA
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Getty
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Reuters
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Reuters
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Getty
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PA
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AFP via Getty
50/50 7 July 2020A circus performer from the Association of Circus Proprietors in Whitehall, London. The association handed a petition to Downing Street to ask Prime Minister Boris Johnson to allow circuses to reopen
EPA
In her letter, seen by The Independent , Ms Malhotra told the employment minister: “While the government’s U-turn to extend the ban on evictions by a month is welcome, the evictions crisis is only being postponed. Rent arrears will grow further unless the extension is used effectively to scrap the benefit cap.”
She cited a report last year by the cross-party House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, which found that many of those affected by the cap faced an “intolerable” financial position, with evidence from one housing association that 55 per cent of those affected fell into rent arrears.
And she said that the overwhelming majority – 86 per cent – of households subject to the cap include children, with two-thirds of them being single parent families.
The shadow employment minister asked Ms Davies to provide an assessment of the numbers of households at risk of eviction and details of steps being taken by the Department for Work and Pensions to allow them to stay in their homes.
“Labour has repeatedly called on the government to scrap the benefit cap and extend the ban on evictions to avoid a wave of homelessness,” said Ms Malhotra. “This policy pushes families and children into poverty.
“With the extension of the ban on evictions, the government must scrap the benefit cap to prevent further rent arrears and evictions at a time when families need support the most.”
DWP data released earlier this month showed more than 150,000 households had their benefits capped as of May 2020, an increase of 74,000 on the previous quarter.
And a huge spike in the number of universal credit claimants as a result of the economic hit from Covid-19 saw the number of capped households claiming the benefit rise by 77,000 – a jump of 164 per cent.
Seema Malhotra (Rex)
Single parents were among those worst hit, with 52,000 households with a child under five seeing their income capped.
Overall, 84,000 households had their benefits capped for the first time during the peak of the pandemic between March and May this year.
The extension to the moratorium on evictions came just two days before they were due to begin again after a five-month break due to coronavirus.
Some 227,000 private renters are known to have fallen into arrears as of the end of June, and 174,000 have been threatened with eviction by their landlord or agent.
The Scottish government has already extended a full ban on evictions to March 2021.
A government spokesperson said: “The government has taken unprecedented action to support renters during the pandemic, and our extension of the ban on evictions for a further four weeks means no renters will have been evicted for six months.
“The benefit cap, up to the equivalent salary of £23,000 in London, ensures fairness for hard-working taxpaying households and a strong work incentive, whilst providing a much needed safety net of support.”
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk