Thinktank calls for lump sum housing benefit

Housing benefit should be converted to a £17,000 lump sum grant to enable poorer people to put down a deposit on a home, think-tank Demos has suggested. In a report, Recapitalising the poor, it argues that it this would help end the ‘culture of dependency’ that dominate poor communities. It also said that part of the income tax paid by low earners should be ringfenced and put into a private pension to remove them from the system of means-tested pension credit when they retire.