Owen Smith MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on new analysis from the Labour Party showing after a three quarters increase in the number of working households relying on housing benefit, 1.1 million could lose £570 a year if the Chancellor presses ahead with cuts, said:

“The Tories are determined to find new and innovative ways to take money away low and middle paid working families.  Just as with tax credits, cuts to housing benefit would have a devastating impact on families struggling to make ends meet. If George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith press ahead with their plans for yet another raid on housing benefit, 1.1 million working families are set to lose an average of £570 a year. 

“The Government are failing spectacularly to build a high wage economy or tackle our housing crisis.  This has resulted in the number of working families relying on housing benefit to keep a roof over their head, shooting up by 73 per cent since the Tories came to power in 2010.

“The answer to the mess the Government have got themselves in to over tax credits, is not to take money away from working people and drive them out of their homes.”