Member

If this freeze continues, the outcome is already predicted: renters on housing benefit will be worse off, thousands will be pulled into poverty and tens of thousands more pushed into severe hardship, including tens of thousands of children. This is not an unintended consequence but a foreseeable result, and that is what worries me most. It is cost-shifting, not cost-saving: it might save money on DWP top lines, but it is shunting the cost somewhere else. I would like to hear from the Minister whether the Government factored in all these consequential costs when making this policy decision.