In
Eighteenth Century England, relief for unemployment depended on the Laws of
Settlement. If you had not worked continuously for a year in the place you
lived, you had no ‘settlement’ and were not entitled to poor relief. Instead,
the last place you worked for a year was deemed your place of settlement and
you were sent back there – even if you had not been there for 30 years. Wives
took their husband’s settlement so if a husband died, his widow and children
were sent back to the last place where he had worked for a year – even if she
had never been there. In short, people without work were often unable to stay
in the village or town where they had lived for many years, but removed by law
to somewhere else, simply to save money locally.
The Welfare
Act 2012 is the new Government Law of Settlement. Under the Act, housing
benefit depends on how many people live in a house. For example, single people
under 35 on benefits entitled to housing benefit can only get an allowance to
cover shared accommodation. If they wish to live alone, they must pay the
difference between their allowance and the rent. A married couple on benefits
are entitled to housing benefit for a one bedroom house. A couple with a child
are entitled to rent a two bedroom house. However, if they have two children
under 16 of the same sex, the children will be expected to share a room and not
have a room of their own. If they have two children of different sexes, the
children will be expected to share a room until they are 10.
This
legislation means that elderly couples who have raised children in a three
bedroom house are not entitled to remain there once their children have left
home. As a couple, they are only entitled to an allowance to cover the rent of
a one bedroom property and will be expected to move accordingly or
take in lodgers. This is already having a devastating impact on families and is
nothing short of social cleansing.
