The success of The Big Issue is built upon the idea anyone, given a fair chance, can work his or her way out of poverty. It’s the ethos behind the motto, ‘A hand up, not a hand-out’. Yet many of the tens of thousands of people stuck in Britain’s emergency hostels feel they have precious little chance to work their way out and move forward in life.
Last week we investigated the costly hostel system, mostly run by charities and housing associations, and looked at why so many Big Issue vendors found them unhelpful places to address their problems.
One vendor, Paul Jones, told us he preferred to spend his daily earnings on a private backpackers’ hostel, £17.50 a night, rather than sleep any longer at the “chaotic” night shelter hostel run by a charity.
I sent my first payslip off to the council, and they stopped my housing benefit very quickly – they cut me off straight away
This week, we uncover the problems homeless people have in trying to move on from the hostel scene, even once they have managed to find full-time work. Most of the difficulties happen because of a frustrating inflexibility with housing benefit.
Jason Petch spent almost six months in a Salvation Army hostel in Hull after splitting up with his partner. Like most supported-accommodation providers, the charity claimed housing benefit on Jason’s behalf – £866 a month. Jason managed to find work while living in the hostel, earning £235 a week as a service engineer for a vacuum cleaning company. But the job meant his housing benefit claim stopped, making him immediately liable for paying his own rent at the hostel.
“I sent my first payslip off to the council, and they stopped my housing benefit very quickly – they cut me off straight away,” he explains. “When I explained to the staff at the hostel, they said to me, ‘Well, you need to pay for your full month here or you’ll be evicted.’” Although Jason has since moved on from the hostel and found a one-bedroom house with a housing association – and has found work as a counsellor – he is left puzzled by the rigid nature of housing benefit claims.