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Spare rooms on benefits 'must go'
2011-06-06 22:14:53
6 June 2011 Last updated at 15:25 Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print Social housing spare rooms a luxury - welfare minister By Elaine Lester Producer, BBC Radio 4's You and Yours Families in social housing could be moved to smaller properties under government proposals Continue reading the main story Related Stories Should the poor live in rich areas? Empty homes 'hidden from figures'
Spare bedrooms for people in social housing are a luxury the country can no longer afford, a minister has said.
Tenants with spare rooms will lose £11 a week in housing benefit under changes going through Parliament.
Welfare Reform Minister Lord Freud told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours the cuts were needed as the housing benefit bill was "out of control".
But the policy depends on moving families into smaller homes and critics say there are not enough available.
'Very unfair'Asked by You and Yours presenter Julian Worricker, if a spare bedroom should be regarded as a "luxury" for those in social housing, Lord Freud said: "Exactly - we have got a housing benefit expenditure that is simply out of control.
"It's very unfair for taxpayers to have to fund people to live in property that's larger than they can afford themselves.
"And also that means that people don't make the same choices, and are faced with those choices, that they would if they were non benefit recipients."
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