London – Charedim Hard Hit by Budget Cuts

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    London – The spending cuts announced in the budget contain “very bleak news” that could lead to misery for the Charedi community, the country’s largest Jewish housing association has warned.

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    Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement of a freeze on child benefits and cuts to housing benefit have been met with serious concern by the Agudas Israel Housing Association.

    Families on housing benefit will receive a maximum of £400 a week for properties with more than three bedrooms as the government attempts to save £1.8 billion by the end of this parliament.

    There will be a further 10 per cent cut for unemployed people who receive housing benefit after a year of looking for work.

    David Levenson, Agudas’s finance director, said: “The combination of these things can only lead in one direction. There will be further overcrowding for Charedi families, and at worst there’s the threat of a number of households being evicted.

    “If benefits are capped and families cannot pay the rent, then they will be thrown out.”

    Mr Levenson predicted that the difference his organisation could make would be severely diminished, given the number of families likely to need additional help.

    “At a time when the government is looking to make cuts, the provision of new social housing will also be hammered, so it is a squeeze on both sides.”

    Agudas expects to feel the pinch most in London, but Mr Levenson warned the capital would only be a microcosm of the wider problem, with Jewish communities in Manchester and Gateshead also likely to feel the effects of the cuts.

    “In Stamford Hill we deal with more than 2,000 families in private rented accommodation. Some are quite substantial families who are already in properties not ideally sized for them.

    “But there appears to be no regional variation on the housing caps. Rent might be more manageable in Gateshead, but it is borderline in Manchester, and in London it will cause real pressure.”

    Mark Cunningham, director of community services at Manchester Jewish Federation, agreed the budget may have an impact on services and staffing.

    He said: “A great deal of our work is with people who are on low incomes or are disabled or vulnerable. We do a significant amount with children and families. Everyone was expecting to take a hit. Rents in the areas we work in are high, so that cap will have an impact.”

    One concern surrounds the possibility of cuts in local authority funding, but Mr Cunningham said the Fed hoped the high level of service it offers would provide some protection.

    He said in recent months the Fed had seen a “phenomenal and dramatic” increase in requests for help compared to last year.


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    10 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Maybe this’ll be the impetus they need to get out into the workforce. It was beyond me that the govt had no limit in the first place!

    Loshon Hora
    Loshon Hora
    13 years ago

    Yesterday the article [Haarettz] had a different tone. Sad as it may be the lesson in economics is: That you could tax the rich & subsidise the poor when the poor work for the rich & benefit them. When the rich don’t hire & the poor have no work, & become really poor, there is no money to help them, so they also have to cut.
    I laways wondered why people who have never yet entered the job stream are awarded prime city appartments, which cost way more than rural & suburben. It only makes sense to have a cap & unless someone has lived somewhere years lost their job,& the kids are in school there, they should relocate to suberbia, after all others are working to pay their rent.
    Unfortunatly Chareidim , even in thhe workstream have big families & need susidies, they also need to live within walking distance of Shul & mikvah, and most have kids in school already.
    Hurray! Gateshead which was founded by a Chasidishe Yid [Husyatene chusid], & conquered by German Jews who wannabie Litvaks, will now get the Chasidim comming back, & will grow, & become more Heimish with Shtiebelech Rebbes & Chadorim, Ad bias goel tzedek BB”O.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    It seems to be a disease spreading among Chareidim worldwide….their subsidies are being slashed and they will either have to c’v go out and work to support their families or have smaller families they can afford to house, feed, cloth and educate without handouts from the government. This sounds a lot like the ongoing screams of “gevalt” from the politicans in heimeshe areas of New York facing cuts in city and state subsidies.

    James Dean
    James Dean
    13 years ago

    This phenomenon of living on the dole continues to blow my mind. Please don’t tell me this is the way it was in the “Alter Heim”, it wasn’t.

    I hope people are starting to get their heads around the incredible poverty that the Chareidi education (or lack thereof) system is forcing people into.

    Institutionalized poverty is dumb and is not what the Torah asks us to do.

    Big Masmid
    Big Masmid
    13 years ago

    I guess this is a clear sign from Hashem to leave London and move to Eretz Yisroel to be on line to greet Moshiach.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    400 British Pounds per week for housing translates to about $31,000 per year as the upper limit for the housing subsidy. I understand that housing in London is very expensive, but that is still a lot of money. Unfortunately, we are going to see more and more of these cutbacks to prevent more economic problems like what has happened in Greece. This means people who want to have large families may need to live in areas far less expensive than places like London and New York City, and better and more post-secondary education is needed to make sure people can get good jobs.