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Government officials have launched a probe into whether the Tory benefits regime is causing homelessness.

Whitehall’s most senior housing chief last night admitted the welfare system is “relevant” to the crisis.

It comes weeks after Homelessness Minister Heather Wheeler said “I don’t know” what has forced thousands more onto the streets.

Some 78,930 households are in temporary accommodation - up 64% since 2010 - and rough sleeping has more than doubled.

Melanie Dawes, Pemanent Secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, revealed her officials are looking at the benefits system.

She told the Commons Public Accounts Committee: “We’re doing a piece of work on the causes of homelessness, which certainly includes DWP [the Department for Work and Pensions].

(Image: Daily Mirror)

“And we’re looking across the piece at all the different causes of homelessness, recognising that affordable housing, welfare systems, and so on are relevant.”

It comes despite DWP Permanent Secretary Sir Robert Devereux saying last year that homelessness was “a function of the number of houses”.

At the time, Sir Robert told the committee: “If there is any mechanistic thing going on in the welfare system that steps in the way of people getting housing, we are trying to deal with that. But we are not creating the housing in the first place.”

In future, however, officials will be looking out for “patterns” and “trends” in homeless peoples’ benefits, Ms Dawes said.

She told MPs: “The new homelessness caseworking system will require all case workers to ask people coming forward for homelessness support about their benefit status and that of their partner.

(Image: PA)

“So we will, through that casework system, be able to record patterns in relation to benefit status.

“That I think will help us quite a lot in future as we start to draw out those trends.”

Ms Dawes added the government’s rough sleeping strategy is due “by July” and a further report could be expected in December.

And the government launched three Housing First pilot projects to tackle rough sleeping in Liverpool, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.

Housing Secretary James Brokenshire said: “I believe these pilots will have a positive impact in their areas and I look forward to hearing about their successes.”