Grant squeeze to hit homeless people

Homeless people are likely to lose out from a slowdown in the annual rise in community care grant funding, campaigners say.

The Department for Work and Pensions said last week it would increase the national budget for the grants, which are payable to vulnerable people in financial difficulty, for the seventh year running to £141m. But homelessness agencies say the rise was just £3m this year compared with £10m a year since 2002-3.

Shelter said the grant should increase at the same rate because homeless people struggled to cope when they moved into a new home.

Crisis said a quarter of homeless people lose new tenancies, but it was difficult to successfully claim a payment as the budget was limited.