David Cameron says housing benefit reforms are “fair” MPs are to discuss controversial planned reforms to housing benefit amid calls from some Lib Dems and Tories for aspects of the changes to be rethought.
Concerns over the proposed £400 a week cap on housing support are set to be raised during a parliamentary debate on the government’s Spending Review.
Labour has said the cap is unfair and may force families out of their homes.
David Cameron has insisted he will stick with all the changes, describing them as “difficult but right”.
He made a robust defence of the proposals, due to come into effect next April, at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, saying the housing benefit bill had got “completely out of control” under Labour.
Mr Cameron has said it is simply wrong to carry on paying out more than £20,000 a year in housing benefit to a single family as taxpayers’ money was being used to enable people to live in homes working people “couldn’t even dream of”.
His comments came amid suggestions that ministers were prepared to reconsider facets of the plan which have caused most unease, such as the 10% proposed cut in payouts when people have been on jobseeker’s allowance for more than a year.
Several London-based MPs have expressed concern about the impact of this on the poorest people in the city, Deputy Lib Dem leader Simon Hughes calling the measure “harsh and draconian”.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has said the government needs to “mitigate the impact” of the cap to take into account high rental levels in the capital and the fact that people need to stay in an area because of work and their children’s schooling.
The Department of Communities and Local Government is to grant £10m from its homelessness budget to local councils’ funds to ease the consequences of the change, in addition to £60m already allocated for a similar purpose.
According to government figures, 21,000 people will be affected by new caps on the amount families can claim for five, four, three, two and one-bedroomed properties across the UK including 17,000 in London, the majority of whom are out of work.
But 775,000 claimants could be affected by changes to the way local housing benefit levels are calculated, which could see claimants lose an average of £9 a week.
Labour has warned that thousands of people will be forced out of their homes as a result of the changes. Leader Ed Miliband said it showed how “out of touch” the government is with people’s lives.
The opposition will seek to keep up the pressure on the government on Thursday when shadow work and pensions secretary Douglas Alexander meets representatives of housing associations and charities to discuss the issue.
The BBC’s deputy political editor James Landale said that while there was opposition to the plans, it was largely unfocused at this stage.
While ministers were happy to be seen to be clamping down on excessive benefits payouts, he said they were aware of the political impact that any significant demographic upheaval may have, particularly in London.
At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location unless you state otherwise. But your contact details will never be published.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.