Commenting on Government cuts in housing benefit, Nia Griffith MP said,
“The Tory-led UK Government’s half-baked proposals to reduce local caps on housing benefit will affect almost 50,000 households in Wales. The cuts which will affect many low paid workers and low-income pensioners as well as those who are out of work, will leave people having to pay their rent from money they need for food and fuel. It will be Welsh councils who find themselves picking up the tab for homeless families evicted for non-payment of rent. Government Ministers know perfectly well that housing in Wales is predominantly three-bedroomed, and we simply do not have the one and two bedroomed homes for smaller families to move to. The so-called bedroom tax which will penalise people because they have a spare room is just another backdoor cut by the Tories. The Government’s own figures predict that the average loss in Wales will be £9 a week, coming at a time when families are already struggling with rising food and fuel bills.”