Friday, April 07, 2017

Housing benefit cuts endanger young people





By New Worker correspondent
 
PROTESTERS gathered in Parliament Square last Saturday 1st April, to demand the Government restore housing benefit rights to young people between the ages of 18 and 25.
The protest was timed to coincide with the cut coming into force, which will leave an estimated 10,000 young people at risk of eviction and homelessness.
Homelessness has doubled in Britain since 2010 under the Coalition and Tory governments, and the new measures will make the situation a lot worse.
The Tory policy assumes that young people have the option to continue living with their parents but in many cases that is just not so. Some have been brought up in care and do not have parental homes to go to. Others may have been thrown out of the family home, for example for coming out as gay or lesbian.
Some have left homes where they were abused, and some young people are themselves parents and trying to rear young children.
The Tories claim that exceptions are made for young people who are ‘vulnerable’, but that is a very elastic term and is applied by local authorities that are desperately short of funding and looking to reduce costs as a priority.
Many could end up on the streets, resulting in an array of other issues such as crime, prostitution and addiction amongst other things.

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