21. Welfare Benefits

This chapter discusses the main types of welfare benefits that are available to family law clients. It explains the importance of welfare benefits in relation to areas of family law, and that a family lawyer must have a working knowledge of these areas in particular with regards to financial remedy. The eligibility of benefits and what the client will receive is discussed. The chapter explains that the main benefit which is now in place is universal credit, but also mentions the ‘legacy benefits’, including income support, jobseeker’s allowance, tax credits, employment and support allowance, housing benefit, council tax reduction, and child benefit.

The lost decade of social and affordable housing: austerity and marketisation

This chapter outlines the ‘lost decade’ of social housing provision in Ireland: the austerity and marketisation policies that resulted in the collapse of social housing building from 2009 to 2019. It shows how austerity measures involved an intensification of the ongoing neoliberal shift from the direct building of social housing by local authorities to the marketisation of social housing provision through the private sector. The forms of marketisation are detailed including the increased use of the private rental sector for social housing (via subsidies and leasing), but also the purchasing of units from the private market. It details how from 2010 onwards, the provision of social housing via subsidies to the private rental sector almost entirely replaced direct building of social housing. This includes the Governments housing plan, Rebuilding Ireland which embedded marketisation and austerity, by using the housing benefit - the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) as the main form of housing provision. It details how HAP and other private market forms of social housing provision worsens the housing supply crisis, is poor value for money, results in tenant insecurity and discrimination, and facilitates the financialisation of housing. And how this is one of the main reasons the Irish housing system suffered such a major shock with the emergence of a new homelessness crisis in 2013.

Explanations: housing matters

Chapter 5 explores the role of Housing First and then the broader housing market, particularly social housing, in explaining the variations in outcomes described in previous chapters. The chapter argues that the scale of secure affordable housing and the targeting of those experiencing homelessness are crucial in reducing homelessness. The Irish do worse in this regard despite expending considerable amounts of public funding on the provision of social housing. This is because it largely relies on private providers to provide housing, with the gap between ability to pay and market rents made up by a housing benefit payment. Denmark retains a considerable stock of public social housing, but is facing tight housing markets in its major urban areas, particularly Copenhagen, where homelessness in concentrated. In Finland, the steady provision of secure affordable housing, coupled with a housing-led/focused response to homelessness have allowed for the provision of a significant number of secure tenancies for households experiencing homelessness.

21. Welfare Benefits

This chapter discusses the main types of welfare benefits that are available to family law clients. It explains the importance of welfare benefits in relation to areas of family law, and that a family lawyer must have a working knowledge of these areas in particular with regards to financial remedy. The eligibility of benefits and what the client will receive is discussed. The chapter explains that the main benefit which is now in place is universal credit, but also mentions the ‘legacy benefits’, including income support, jobseeker’s allowance, tax credits, employment and support allowance, housing benefit, council tax reduction, and child benefit.

Redesigning Housing Policy

Executive SummaryDiscussion of the UK's housing crisis is of long date, and tends to focus on a simple story about a mismatch in housing supply and demand and the consequent need to build more homes. Yet the reality is more complex with multiple sub-plots including social housing, stress in the private rented sector, benefits, subsidies and ultimately taxation of home ownership.At the bottom of the market, the crisis is real and acute, as manifested in a sharp increase in homelessness and rough sleeping. The inescapable answer is to increase the depleted stock of social housing and widen eligibility criteria. An increase of 100,000 social units a year in England would help address this problem, as well as alleviate the financial squeeze on tenants of the private rented sector, whose number has grown sharply in the past 15 years in tandem with a steep rise in the housing benefit bill. Recent efforts to curb housing benefit have further increased distress, so it will be necessary to consider increasing benefits again alongside regulatory interventions with private landlords.In the home ownership market, recent government intervention has taken the form of the much-criticised Help-to-Buy Equity Loan scheme. This market policy to support new-build homes should be wound down and replaced by a scheme to endow all young people with a capital sum that they could use for second-hand homes as well. More generally, a more sophisticated approach to planning home-building is needed, both for assessing overall numbers and their regional distribution and in financing the supporting infrastructure.But none of these measures is a panacea for a housing crisis that is in large part a symptom of problems in the wider economy, such as low relative wages for young people, a lack of clarity about environmental issues, and failing places. A successful policy package to address the distorted structure of the housing market must also grasp the most difficult nettle of all – namely the way the tax benefits of owner-occupation incentivise overconsumption of housing and a widening wealth gap between renters and home owners, and between owners in different parts of the country. If we spend more to help those who struggle to afford decent housing, then it is only just to raise more taxation from those who benefit from restrictions on housing supply – whether through reform to council tax, a wider wealth tax or a limited form of Capital Gains Tax on principal residences.

Der Drehtüreffekt zwischen Wohngeld und Grundsicherung

Zusammenfassung Für Haushalte mit niedrigen Einkommen können Veränderungen der Haushaltsstruktur oder eine Einkommenserhöhung durch Arbeitsaufnahme oder -ausweitung einzelner Haushaltsmitglieder einen Systemwechsel von der Grundsicherung zum Wohngeld oder umgekehrt nach sich ziehen. Hinzu kommt das Problem, dass das Wohngeldsystem nicht wie die Regelsätze der Grundsicherung jedes Jahr angepasst wird. Durch die Nichtanpassung wechseln Haushalte aus dem Wohngeld in die Grundsicherung hinein oder in den Nicht-Transferbezug. Werden die Wohngeldleistungen im Rahmen einer Reform erhöht, dann werden viele dieser Haushalte wieder ins Wohngeldsystem zurückgeholt. Dieser Wechsel kann als Drehtüreffekt bezeichnet werden. Mit Hilfe von Mikrosimulationsrechnungen wird gezeigt, wie groß der Drehtüreffekt ist. Zudem werden Wirkungen verschiedener Varianten einer möglichen Dynamisierung des Wohngeldsystems abgeschätzt. Abstract: The Swing-Door Effect between Housing Allowances and the Social Assistance System in Germany For low-income households, changes in the household structure or an increase in their income through taking up or expanding work for individual household members may result in a change from the social assistance system (Grundsicherung) to the housing allowances system (Wohngeld) or vice versa. In addition, there is the problem that the housing benefit system is not adjusted every year like the payments in the subsistence welfare system. The non-adjustment cause households to grow out of housing subsidies and into subsistence welfare system. When housing benefits are increased in a reform, many households come back into the housing benefit system. This change can be called the swing door effect. We show with a microsimulation model the size and relevance of this effect. In addition, the decline in the number of recipients and in expenditure is broken down into various components. Also effects of different variants of a dynamization of the housing benefit system are estimated.

Housing precarity and advanced marginality in the UK

This chapter presents concluding remarks about the impacts of the Bedroom Tax. It reflects on the processes through which housing insecurity is generated and how this is playing a central role in increasing urban marginality. It does so by drawing on studies about rising housing precarity and homelessness to consider how both the social and private housing sectors have been responding to reductions in housing benefit. This chapter argues that we need to re-consider how and in what ways the struggles over housing are being played out at the local level and how this can generate divisions in and between different groups. Particularly when people are re-negotiating a welfare state that is undergoing deep systematic reorganisation. It considers the relationship between austerity policies and their role in creating political dissatisfaction with the state of UK politics. Especially in areas where the full impact of austerity measures have been felt.

Life without state‑supported housing

Chapter 2 looks back on the history and development of council housing and the reasons why the state intervened in the housing market. Looking at key moments in its development, it highlights the historical tensions and divisions that inadequate housing gave rise to. It also draws attention to the development of the welfare state and the housing benefit scheme in order to provide background context to the changes that are unfolding in present day Britain relating to housing insecurity. This chapter explores the relationship between politics and the housing system, highlighting how different political parties and political ideologies impacted on the UKs public housing sector. It charts the rise of neoliberalisation in the UK, engaging with theories of neoliberalism and Loic Wacquant’s work on processes of advanced urban marginality. This chapter ends with outlining the case study fieldwork site and the methods employed in this study.

Introduction: the repositioning of social housing and welfare provision

This chapter sets out the background and context to the UK’s implementation of austerity measures following the financial crash of 2007/08. It examines the principles underlying the enactment of the Bedroom Tax policy before outlining the new regulations on room restrictions that have been imposed on those claiming housing benefit in the social rented sector. It discusses the controversy surrounding its implementation as well as the ways in which it has impacted different regions of the UK. This chapter also reflects on changes to housing benefit more widely and suggests that we are seeing the return of the ‘housing question’ in post-industrial Britain as austerity policies undermine housing affordability. The final part of this chapter outlines the structure of the book.