My Lords, I have added my name to Amendments 152 and the related 190, which provide for a period of grace before those who have to leave an abusive relationship become subject to the cap on their benefits. I am honoured to be addressing this issue alongside the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, who is such a wonderful campaigner on social security issues, and also the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester. Perhaps I could take this opportunity to extend my own welcome to the right reverend Prelate, who is already proving such an asset to your Lordships’ House, not least with his extensive knowledge of the issues of housing and homelessness. The issue covered by Amendment 152 is, in large measure, about housing and housing costs. I declare my interest as chair of the Affordable Housing Commission. I thank the Chartered Institute of Housing for its briefing on this amendment.
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The issue here is that the benefits system, with its cap on the total amount of benefit which a household can receive—including the help for housing costs—was not designed to deal with the circumstances of domestic abuse. Without reform, the benefit cap will undermine other positive measures which this very important Bill is introducing. The benefit cap creates particularly severe financial penalties for those who have to end an abusive relationship. Indeed, the financial impact of the cap can mean that someone suffering abuse is simply unable to leave their current accommodation to escape their abuser because of the calamitous loss of income that can involve.
Amendment 152 allows a period of grace before the benefit cap kicks in, giving a bit of time for the household, as appropriate, to find work and avoid the cap or to find accommodation that is affordable within the cap. It does not remove the benefit cap, nor increase it, and the amendment covers only those whose claims arise specifically because of domestic abuse. It proposes a very limited measure, but one which provides an essential breathing space for those who have to end an abusive relationship.
The benefit cap problem is very often caused by the cost of accommodation that is so disproportionate in many areas. The Government did the right thing last year in raising the level of rent which qualifies for housing benefit by returning the local housing allowance—the limit on rental support—to cover the cheapest 30% of rented homes. Although support is not back to the level pertaining before the limits and freezes on housing help were introduced, this change is very helpful. However, it does not assist those affected by the benefit cap: since the cap remains unchanged, being allowed to spend more on the rent simply eats into the support intended for food, heating, clothes, et cetera. Getting help to pay for a higher rent is no help at all if the cap simply means the amount of benefit available for everything else is correspondingly reduced.
Those who must escape an abusive situation need to find somewhere available to live in a hurry, with no time to shop around. Because of the benefit cap, and despite the uplift in the local housing allowance rates, they must search for somewhere cheaper—and they must find that place very quickly.
Some of those forced out of their homes will be accommodated in a refuge or allocated temporary accommodation organised by their local authority. Fortunately, in these circumstances the benefit cap will not apply immediately. But the cap remains a serious problem for them: they will need to move on into a rented flat, and they then face the extreme difficulty of finding somewhere at a rent affordable within the benefit cap.
Issues of domestic abuse throw up special problems of sudden poverty, which the benefit cap currently can greatly exacerbate. The cap traps those affected either by making it impossible to get out of the place where they are subject to the abuse or to leave a temporary home to which they have moved as an interim measure. Given time, the household may find somewhere at a cost within their benefit cap and/or get themselves into paid employment, but they need a period of grace, which this amendment suggests should be 12 months.
The Department for Work and Pensions is already familiar with the need to treat the circumstances of domestic abuse differently—for example, in its requirement to begin seeking employment, which is not the same as for other jobseekers. So, a precedent and the administrative arrangements are already in place to distinguish these cases.
This is a modest but vital change and I hope that the Minister, and her support with us tonight, will be able to bring reassurance from her colleagues at DWP that such a change—at minimal cost to public funds—represents an acceptable improvement to the Bill.