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Ministers urged to ‘keep wolf from door of renters’ as people who need benefits doubles during lockdown
Ministers have been urged to take action to protect renters as new official figures showed the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits has surged 125.9% since the coronavirus lockdown began.
Workforce data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) today showed the claimant count for Universal Credit with a “searching for work” status and Jobseeker’s Allowance hit 2.8 million in May, up from 1.6 million in March.
At the same time, the ONS reported a record 60% quarterly drop in job vacancies since it started collecting the data in 2001.
There were an estimated 476,000 openings in the UK from March to May, 342,000 fewer than the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, pay as you earn (PAYE) figures from the ONS and HMRC indicated that the number of paid employees in the UK fell by 612,000 in March and April, a drop of 2.1%.
They are the latest official figures showing the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on livelihoods.
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Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said many of those losing jobs “will be private renters living in the least secure homes”.
She added: “While the evictions ban is providing some temporary respite, it isn’t stopping renters who’ve lost income from amassing home-threatening debts.
“Worse yet, with Universal Credit too low to pay average rents, those same renters are met with gaping holes in the government’s safety net. We speak to families every day who can’t keep the wolf from the door.
“Without more support, tens of thousands of renters are facing the very real prospect of homelessness when the evictions ban ends.
“To defuse this ticking time bomb, the government must increase benefit levels, so they cover average rents.
“It also needs to change the law to protect renters – by giving judges the power to stop people automatically losing their homes due to rent arrears.”
The government recently extended a de facto moratorium on evictions in England and Wales until 23 August, with tenants expected to pay off arrears built up during the crisis later.
In March, ministers increased Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to ensure that housing-related benefits for private renters cover the cheapest 30% of rents in each area.
But Shelter has argued that many people now relying on benefits to pay the rent will face significant shortfalls and called for LHA rates to be hiked further to cover average rents.
The government’s furlough scheme, which is currently paying wages for nearly nine million workers across the UK on behalf of their employers, is due to end in October.
Separate figures published by the DWP today show that 2.4 million households have made a Universal Credit declaration since mid-March.
