Brits in receipt of housing benefit or Universal Credit are able to afford just one in every twenty private rental homes, new data shows. A big DWP freeze on housing benefits means that the proportion of privately rented properties available to those on low incomes has plummeted.
Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates - which control how much rental support people can get - have remained frozen in cash terms since April 2020, however, rents for new lets have increased by over a fifth on average across the board. Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) shows that the proportion of new private rentals on Zoopla which would be covered by LHA have dipped from 23 per cent to just five per cent since the freeze.
The Mirror reports that this is the lowest level on record. And the quality of housing has also dropped - with those on low incomes more likely to live in homes with higher utility and energy costs.
