Housing benefits intended to help the unemployed into work are having the opposite effect, according to a charity which supports young people.
Erimus House is a youth shelter in Middlesbrough which is run by the charity Changing Lives. The shelter focuses on providing support to homeless people between the ages of 16 to 25 years old. The shelter provides counselling services, accommodation as well as food and drink.
However, even with the help of Erimus house, many users find themselves getting ‘benefits trapped’. Which means most of the job opportunities available to them will not be able to maintain the costs of living and staying on universal credit ends up being better for them in terms of debt. Therefore preventing social mobility.
Shannon Jackson, senior support worker at Erimus house said:
“Housing benefits pay a lot of the cost of accommodation. To get housing benefits to cover a significant amount of the rent, they have to be on universal credit.
“So once they lose universal credit because they went to work full time, all their housing benefits stop. They become liable to pay their housing costs.
“I n supported accommodation, the rents are around 300 to 400 pounds per week, which a normal working full time person can’t afford.
“We recommend part time work as you can still claim universal credit and we recommend working on employability.
“We encourage people to gain work experience and to pursue courses. We are aiming for people to gain mid-level jobs and fixed hour contracts.
“The Government should allow full time workers to keep their housing benefits and they should pay less taxes because at the moment; the current system doesn’t allow them to become self-sufficient, on minimum wage.”
An anonymous user of Erimus house said:
“I am really keen to get into full time work but the current Government policy is stopping me.
“I am trying my best to get into work but the costs of losing my universal credit, would put me into significant debt.
“I feel stuck in terms of getting a job because at the moment, it is a financially bad decision.”
On the changes to the benefits system, the Labour press office said:
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