Benefit changes fail to help tenants move, says report
A BBC investigation suggests that the UK government is failing to achieve one of its stated aims for cutting housing benefit.
A year on from the change in rules, which reduced the amount of housing benefit a tenant deemed to have spare bedrooms can claim, figures obtained by the BBC suggest just 6% of tenants affected have moved home.
Ministers claimed the policy would free up under-occupied homes and reduce overcrowding.
The data, from more than 200 councils, including 10 in Wales, also suggests that more than one in four tenants whose benefit was reduced have now fallen into arrears.
The UK government says the reforms are helping ensure better use is made of social housing stock.
BBC Wales' mid Wales reporter Charlotte Dubenskij has been to meet Karen Marsh, from Lampeter, Ceredigion, who has down-sized because of changes to housing benefits.
28 Mar 2014
- From the section Wales