In her latest speech in the Commons, Lyn Brown MP urged the Government to take action to ensure that people who return to work are not left worse off.

In a debate on Work and Welfare, the West Ham MP continued her fight to reform the tax and benefits system which she says has discouraged many people in the area not to go back to work as they are faced with the reality of being made financially worse off.

Lyn Brown highlighted to Government Ministers the problem of excessively high rents in West Ham, along with the high cost of living that has deterred many of her constituents who were willing to work, to stay workless or work lesser hours in order to be eligible for benefits. She said this was a major problem for the many people living in private temporary housing accommodation.

Lyn explained:

“My constituents are virtually imprisoned by the excessively high rents charged for temporary accommodation, which those on low wages can afford only because they are subsidised by the housing benefits scheme.”

In illustrating the problem, Lyn referred to a woman desperate to work who came to her when she ended up in temporary accommodation and was forced not to take a job as her high rent costs, together with other living costs that included travel were not covered by the wages offered. Lyn quoted the constituents despair as she described her situation as: “trapped in benefits, prevented from returning to work—all my wages would just go to pay the rent and I would be worse off.”

Currently more than 4,000 households in the London borough of Newham are living in private sector temporary accommodation, which costs about £70 million a year. The wait for a Council house is a lengthy one with 25,000 families on the housing waiting list and the average wait for a three-bed property being 13 years.

With the Government’s currently undertaking a review of the Housing Benefit system, Lyn appealed to ministers to reform the housing benefits to eliminate the poverty trap faced by many people in West Ham.

Although the Government has made long term efforts to tackle the problem by increasing the supply of affordable housing, until that can be delivered Lyn believes that measures such as tapering housing benefit at a slower rate, and accounting for the full cost of working in benefit calculations by including housing, child care, school meals and transport may be necessary to eliminate the poverty trap.

Lyn said “My message is that the housing benefit system is in desperate need of reform. I am making a call to action across Departments—the Government must take the right actions to help individuals and communities back to work”.