Changes to benefit hit 1m households

ALMOST a million households will each lose around £12 a week under changes to housing benefit announced in the emergency Budget, according to a new analysis.

The TUC said cuts to the local housing allowance will hit almost everyone in private rented housing on the benefit, costing them an average of over 600 a year.

The biggest cuts will be in London, the North West and the South East under changes announced in the June Budget, including a cap on the amount that can be claimed under local housing allowance.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "This cut in housing benefit will make a real difference to some of our poorest and most vulnerable families, and will affect nearly one million households.

"Families in London will find themselves out of pocket to the tune of 1,144 a year, and households all over the UK will be left much worse off.

"The Chancellor promised not to hide any hard choices from the British people or bury them in the small print, but this is another reminder that we are very definitely not all in this together.

"While the rich have been let off, families are being left to pick up the cost of the recession."