by Sunny Hundal

Housing benefit claimants who fall into arrears when their payments are cut will not receive full support from their councils, an MP warned today.

Speaking at a Westminster Hall debate, Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives Andrew George said the cuts to housing benefit announced in the emergency Budget and the comprehensive spending review would lead to an increase in homelessness and demand for social housing.

He said tenants who were no longer able to pay their rent as a result of a shortfall in their housing benefit ‘will be found intentionally homeless and therefore not eligible for assistance from the local authority’.

Councils are only obliged to provide temporary accommodation for a limited amount of time to those found intentionally homeless.

The National Housing Federation said it was expecting a number of test cases to challenge this situation once the cuts come in from April next year.