Petition Proposal to overturn the planned cuts to Local Housing Allowance for the under-35's due to come into force from January 2012

The government is to make a radical cut in the rate of Local Housing Allowance from January 2012.

The present rate of benefit payable to a single person aged 35 or under, occupying a one bedroom self contained property, will be lowered to that of a single person occupying a single room in a shared property.

This will cause severe social and financial hardship to already vulnerable groups of people such as those with severe mental illness, physical disability or a disadvantaged social background - those unable to easily deal with upheavals such as having to find money to make up shortfalls in rent, or having to move home from now unaffordable properties, into highly unsuitable and undesirable accommodation, viz. low rent, poor quality shared housing, improperly maintained properties, the homes of family and friends, or, in the worst cases, outright homelessness and destitution.

This petition requests that the government overturn the cuts, with immediate effect.