The current Pensions Minister, Steve Webb, has admitted in an interview with The Independent that the state pension level is "not enough to live on." Right, that is £97 a week. The current level of JSA or Income Support for a single person over 25 is £65.45, that is £31.55 LESS than the state pension that is quote "not enough to live on." How can this be justified ?
In the recent pronouncements regarding the review of the benefit system the amount that is paid to claimants has been including housing benefit and Council Tax. This is grossly misleading. This money does not go to the claimant, in the case of Council Tax it goes direct to the Local Authority and never touches the claimant's bank account. Housing benefit can be paid to the claimant, but in the majority of cases goes directly to the landlord, which again is often the Local Authority who are effectively transferring their own funds from one account to another.
The claimant however remains in the middle and responsible for the rental payments. Thus when there are delays in the processing of claims, which are, from bitter experience, commonplace and very difficult to deal with, the claimant can be pressed by their landlord and threatened and indeed evicted as this payment is controlled by the Local Authority not by the DWP and there is virtually no control that the claimant can exercise over its payment or non-payment. It is not usable for any other expense and it is not income as it a transfer from the Local Authority to a landlord.
Over the last ten years the rents in the social sector have been deliberately increased to more closely follow the market rents in a given area, this has meant a big increase in the amounts of money involved but this money does not go to claimants. The basic rates of JSA/Income Support have trailed behind and at a maximum of £65.45 for an individual without dependents and making no disability claims it is at a disgracefully low level.
