Housing Benefit Exploding

Dave Hill has figures on the explosion in Housing Benefit recipients in London, including Brent.  The vast increase is not that amazing given the economic situation created by the government's austerity programme.  Limiting the housing benefit bill was, of course, supposed to be the Con Dem government's objective.  along with the predictable increase in other benefit take up (e.g. jobseekers allowance), it is likely to destroy the government's efforts to cut the deficit _ a neat demonstration of Keynes' paradox of thrift. 

One of the ways that I suspect the government will react is by not allowing the usual uplift of benefit levels in line with the September inflation rate.  I don't think they will try that with pensions, since pensioners tend to vote, but poorer people are likely to get doubly hit by rising inflation and falling benefits.