Tory 'King of Overseas Jaunts' Defends Housing Benefit Cuts For Young People

The Conservative MP for Romford has defended cuts to housing benefit after a leading youth homelessness charity said they could drive thousands onto the streets.

Andrew Rosindell argued that automatic entitlement to housing benefit risked leading to a life of unemployment.

He claimed easy access to benefits needed to end, to force jobseekers to face everyday challenges.

He said: “I do not believe it is acceptable, that in an economy where employment continues to rise, some young people leave school and go straight on to a life on benefits. Young people in the benefit system should face the same choices as other young people who go out to work and cannot yet afford to leave home. That is why I welcome that the automatic entitlement to housing support for 18-21-year-olds will be stopped.”

Interestingly according to Wikipedia, Rosindell, who has in the past expressed his admiration for General Pinochet  - "claimed more than £125,000 in second home expenses for a flat in London, while designating his childhood home 17 miles away – where his mother lived – as his main address.

In 2010, the BBC accused Rosindell of breaching Parliamentary rules by accepting subsidised overseas trips to Gibraltar and subsequently raising multiple Gibraltar-related issues in Parliament without disclosing the trips in the Register of Members' Interests. The journalist Simon Heffer dubbed him the 'King of subsidised jaunts' for sitting on "90 groups concerned with overseas locations or causes.

In February 2015, he cast doubt on the ability of Rachel Reeves (then Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) to handle that ministerial responsibility in a putative post-election Labour cabinet, as she would be taking maternity leave soon after the election and would then have a young child to care for following her return to the post in September. David Cameron distanced himself from that comment.

The cuts, which came into effect on April 1, stop new jobseekers, aged 18 – 21, from claiming housing benefit as part of Universal Credit.

Charities like Centrepoint have criticised the change, with some predicting a rise in young people on the streets.

Paul Noblet, head of public affairs at Centrepoint, said the ’ill-judged’ policy undermined attempts to eradicate homelessness and could have dire consequences.

“Recent government efforts to tackle homelessness risk being undermined by this ill-judged policy which could force thousands of young people on to the streets.”

Figures provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that 11,000 people across the country are expected to be hit by the cut by 2020/21.

Mr Noblet was also sceptical about the preventative effects of exemptions, claiming young people who managed to get housing benefits were not immune from hardship.

He added: “With no guarantee that exemptions to the policy for some vulnerable young people will actually prevent them slipping through the safety net, the government’s plans could both cost the tax payer more money than they save and force more young people into homelessness.”

Mr Rosindell said he understood concerns but exemptions would be made for vulnerable people, those unable to return to their family home and people who have been in work for six months before applying.

Benefit changes that started earlier this month were devised by George Osborne, the ex-chancellor of the exchequer, and were announced at previous budgets.