Last year, when George Osborne swiftly laid out his benefit cuts on the table, he threw a small bone to disabled people living alone who require occasional overnight help from carers. He passed an exemption that meant from April this year, these people could receive the two-bedroom rate of housing benefit to pay for a room to be used by carers as required. For those who would find this extra allowance useful, it seemed like a small reprieve among the announcements of slashes to housing benefit; maybe those who need the most help and care wouldn’t do so bad after all. Osborne and Grant Shapps, the minister for housing, also said that the worst off and most afflicted would be looked after, and be free of the clampdown on housing benefit. Before the election, David Cameron promised to “protect the most vulnerable” – an assurance he has broken.
In April this year, the exemption for a second-bedroom rate for carer use began, yet many who have provided medical evidence and proof of having carers have been hit by rates of local housing allowances being slashed. Despite applying for and being accepted to receive extra help in paying for an extra room, disabled people are to be worse off, as some boroughs have cut the rate for two-bedroom homes by at least £50-£70 a week, which is to be added to rent shortfalls paid by the disabled claimants. The local housing allowances are to review the rates again next year, and they could remain the same or decrease again.
While many will work and have to use their wages to pay this extra cost, so many people who require lots of care will be unable to work, and be totally dependent on their disability living allowance (DLA) and employment support allowance. DLA should be used to pay for care and help with the costs of getting around, and it can be received if you work or not. Employment support allowance is paid to severely disabled people who are unable to work, to help with the costs of living.
If somebody received the highest rates of care and mobility DLA, they would get £500 a month; even if they did not need to pay any rent shortfall – though few disabled people contribute nothing towards rent payments – then they would suddenly have to pay at least an extra £200 a month to cover the new rates.
Even if the disabled person received employment support allowance at the highest rate for people completely unable to work, it would all go towards rent. Add the cost of utility bills and food, and the price of extra care and help that a disability incurs, then so many will end up in poverty and isolated, unable to live like everyone else.
It seems areas that are facing the biggest cuts in local housing allowances are major cities, where many disabled choose to live due to better hospitals, transport and facilities. With Osborne clawing back £1,765m a year from housing benefit, it is no wonder cities are lowering their local housing allowance as part of spreading the cuts everywhere; but this error in severely lowering the two-bedroom rates for disabled claimants negates the exemption for a room for a carer, leaving them much worse off than before.
Last week, a high court judge ruled that Birmingham council were unlawful in cutting care for disabled people, and he described the move to stop care as potentially devastating. He found the cuts that were introduced to save the council £212m failed to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. It was a unique ruling that has implications for other councils who are making similarly unfair and cruel cuts, which are already preventing the disabled from living independently with adequate care. It is hoped that this harsh aberration in housing benefit for those who are most in need of it will be identified and fixed, though not many disabled people will have the energy to go through the legal process as the four who fought against Birmingham council.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/27/housing-benefit-cuts-disability
Bringing yet more worry and concerns for sick, lonely and the poor.
