COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

David Cameron to unveil plans to save £10bn from welfare budget by 2016, but pensioners will be protected from cuts

Coventry homeless charity warns PM against scrapping housing benefit for under-25s

SCRAPPING housing benefit for young people would cause rising homelessness in Coventry, a leading charity has warned.

Prime Minister David Cameron has mooted the idea of ending the rent subsidy for unemployed, part-time and low paid young people.

The Conservative PM believes it could act as an incentive for more young people to find work, with youth unemployment alarmingly standing at one in five.

But critics of the idea include senior figures within the Tories’ Lib Dem coalition partners, and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

Labour opposition MPs, in blaming coalition economic policies for the double-dip recession, insisted the Government should instead focus on new policies to create jobs.

Now Mike Fowler, chief executive of leading homeless charity Coventry Cyrenians, has stepped into the row.

He said housing professionals were “virtually unanimous” in condeming the proposal, warning of increases in homelessness among young people.

Mr Fowler, who has worked at Coventry Cyrenians for nearly 30 years, warned: “This has to be one of the worst proposals I have ever heard in terms of the devastating impact it would have. Many of the hundreds of young people we see each year are victims.

‘‘Many have left the family home because of abuse or parental neglect.

“Others are vulnerable for other reasons such as mental ill-health or learning difficulties, which are not deemed sufficient enough for support from health or social care services.”

“What we find extraordinary is there are many qualified young people in our community who are unable to find work. For those less well qualified who are unable to return to their parental home, sleeping on the streets won’t be far away. Family and friends will help out, but this only lasts so long, particularly when people can’t pay their way.”

Mr Cameron insists a welfare gap exists between those in the welfare system and those outside it, which sent a “damaging signal” that “it pays not to work; that you are owed something for nothing.”

But Mr Fowler pointed to government figures earlier this month showing one in five of the UK’s 364,000 housing benefit claimants are in work, and would no longer be able to afford rent.