Welfare Reform Impact Analysis

The council has carried out research into the potential impact of the government's welfare reform changes in Brighton & Hove.

We've looked at five different levels of potential impacts and mapped them into the ward areas of Brighton & Hove. The analysis covers the number of households, the financial impact and the different tenure types affected by the welfare reform changes.

The maps represent the following impacts:

  1. The national Council Tax Benefit scheme was abolished on 31 March 2013. The scheme has been replaced with a localised scheme from 1 April 2013. The government has announced that the council will receive a 10% reduction in funding to administer the localised scheme, the name of the new scheme is 'Council Tax Reduction'.
  2. Registered social landlord tenants who under-occupy their homes have had their housing benefit reduced by 14% if they have one spare bedroom in the household, or 25% if there are two or more spare bedrooms or more from 1 April 2013.
  3. Families in receipt of benefits are to be capped at £500 per week and an individual's benefits are to be capped at £350 per week from July 2013.
  4. Customers in receipt of the Local Housing Allowance have had their rate calculated via the 30 percentile rather than the median.
  5. Under 35s in receipt of the Local Housing Allowance are no longer be eligible for the one room self contained rate. This change means they will only be able to receive the shared accommodation rate .

Follow the links below to view or download the charts representing the financial impact across the ward areas in Brighton & Hove.

*  The information that has been collected is indicative only from a data capture made in September 2012 and is subject to change with people's circumstances.