The Metropolis

Housing benefit cuts might be unfair to some Londoners. But so's the status quo

Mike Pollitt | Monday 16 January, 2012 14:12

Dave Hill has a case study in the Guardian looking at how housing benefit cuts will impact on Londoners.

His subject is Lucy Glennon, a 26-year-old freelance writer who has a condition called epidermolysis bullosa, which Dave calls “a brute of a disorder, causing the skin to blister and break as a result of almost any kind of friction or bump”. Nothing that follows should be taken as criticism of Lucy, my argument is certainly not with her.

Lucy lives off the Euston Rd in a 2 bedroom flat costing £400pw. She was receiving £350pw in government funded housing benefit, now down to £290pw. If the cuts hold, she may have no choice but to move. Please read Dave’s piece for the full background.

Dave calls it “a hard price to pay for so much determination and endeavour – the very things London is supposed to reward.”

I don’t disagree with this statement.

But nor do I agree that the government should be using £350 per week, £18,200 per year, of public money to house someone.

This isn’t an argument about principle or ideology, it’s an argument about degree. £18,200 per year is an amount many Londoners struggle to earn in a year, let alone spend on their rent. By seeking to be fair to Lucy, we end up being unfair to them.

Dave Hill in The Guardian – The cuts in London: where will Lucy live?

---