Housing benefit in Scotland

Labour MP Gregg McClymont has urged the government to look again at proposals to change the system of housing benefits, during a Westminster Hall debate on 8 February 2011.

The coalition government wants to put a cap on housing benefit, ranging from £250 a week for those in a one-bedroom property to £400 for those in a four-bedroom property.

There are also plans for a 10% cut in housing benefit for anyone on jobseeker's allowance for more than a year.

However the Scottish Government's Communities Minister Alex Neil has claimed that 60,000 households in Scotland could be affected by the changes.

Mr McClymont said that decent homes were "the mark of a civilised society".

Responding to the debate, Work and Pensions Minister Steve Webb said there would be "no sudden changes in April", and that there was time for tenants and landlords to change their "choices and behaviour".