Housing charity Shelter Scotland has accused Lord Freud the UK Minister for Welfare Reform of ignorance over the impact of housing benefit cuts on homeless people in Scotland.

The criticism follows a letter from Lord Freud in response to a Scottish Government report - backed by the charity and other welfare campaigners - in which he fails to address the negative impact of his reforms on 10 years of progressive homelessness legislation in Scotland.

Shelter Scotland is concerned that the cuts to housing benefit will make it impossible for low income families to pay rent and undermine progress to the internationally-acclaimed 2012 commitment on homelessness.

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Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “This is just wrong and is completely unacceptable from a UK Government minister who has failed to grasp the very real difference between Scotland and England in respect of housing policy.

“Many of the proposed changes to housing benefit apply across the board in the UK, so we have been working with our UK colleagues to define exactly what the impact will be.

“However, some changes have a much more serious impact in Scotland. This is due to the different ways in which rights for homeless people are being changed. While Scotland has been extending rights, the direction of travel in England has been to reduce the number of people entitled to help.

“If these changes to housing benefit go through then they will undermine almost a decade of improvement in services to homeless people in Scotland. In his letter, worryingly, the minister appears not to understand what is happening in Scotland.”

(GK)