Benefit Cuts and Universal Credit

Welfare Reform Benefit Cuts

The main headlines from April 2013 are:

Housing Benefit: If you have a spare room you will lose 14% of your total eligible rent. For two or more spare rooms the reduction in eligible rent for housing benefit is 25%

Benefit Cap: The total amount of benefit, including housing benefit, tax credit, income support, ESA etc will be fixed at £500 per week for a couple/lone parent and £350 per week for single people.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA): This will be replaced by Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for those of working age.

Introduction of Universal Credit

From October 2013: Universal Credit (UC) is set to replace the six existing benefits – income support, income based jobseeker’s allowance, income related employment and support allowance, housing benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit.

UC will be paid monthly in arrears into an account. UC will be paid to one individual per household. This means that in a couple, the assessment for entitlements will be made jointly, and only one person will receive the payment. This will be a significant change for many people.