Private landlords with housing benefit tenants are charging the maximum amounts possible – and ripping off the taxpayer.
A study by the Department for Work & Pensions, ‘Low Income Working Households in the Private Rented Sector’, found that private landlords charge higher rents to housing benefit claimants than to working adults, and offer worse conditions.
According to the DWP, private landlords will pocket almost £8.5bn this year through housing benefit. The figure is more than one-third of the total amount of housing benefit handed out.
The study claims that in the past decade, the cost of providing housing in the private rented sector to benefit claimants has jumped by 36% above inflation.
In comparison, social housing providers have raised their charges by 19% above inflation.
Lord Freud, minister for welfare reform, said: “This confirms what we have long suspected, that some unscrupulous landlords are charging benefit claimants over the odds to make a quick buck at the expense of the taxpayer.”
The housing benefit bill comes to more than running the Army and Royal Navy combined, and costs each working adult £689 a year.