A home of one’s own? Housing welfare for ‘young adults’ in times of austerity
A home of one’s own? Housing welfare for ‘young adults’ in times of austerity
This paper considers how welfare cuts in ‘austerity Britain’ have impacted young adults’ access to a home of their own, asking at what stage in the life-course should the welfare state be expected to support someone’s residential independence? The paper focuses on the 2012 changed age-threshold for the Shared Accommodation Rate of Local Housing Allowance, which meant that single people (without dependents) aged between 25 and 34 are now only entitled to claim the cost of a single room in a shared property. This policy has placed the issue of forced sharing firmly in the spotlight, and poses questions as to whether a shared property with strangers can necessarily always be considered a home. Drawing on policy documents and parliamentary debates, the paper identifies the persistence of normative conceptions of household transition, and shifting ideals of what counts as ‘home’ across the life-course. Ultimately the paper concludes that these normative assumptions enable policy makers to promote this policy as a matter of ‘fairness’ rather than a form of social and spatial injustice.
equalities, life-course, shared living, wellbeing, youth
329-347
Wilkinson, Eleanor
b4e83f65-1c06-4c86-b70c-4cd307d2738a
Ortega Alcazar, Iliana
58969cc6-4e10-4b25-9cc9-673725fef808
August 2017
Wilkinson, Eleanor
b4e83f65-1c06-4c86-b70c-4cd307d2738a
Ortega Alcazar, Iliana
58969cc6-4e10-4b25-9cc9-673725fef808
Wilkinson, Eleanor and Ortega Alcazar, Iliana
(2017)
A home of one’s own? Housing welfare for ‘young adults’ in times of austerity.
Critical Social Policy, 37 (3), .
(doi:10.1177/0261018317699804).
Abstract
This paper considers how welfare cuts in ‘austerity Britain’ have impacted young adults’ access to a home of their own, asking at what stage in the life-course should the welfare state be expected to support someone’s residential independence? The paper focuses on the 2012 changed age-threshold for the Shared Accommodation Rate of Local Housing Allowance, which meant that single people (without dependents) aged between 25 and 34 are now only entitled to claim the cost of a single room in a shared property. This policy has placed the issue of forced sharing firmly in the spotlight, and poses questions as to whether a shared property with strangers can necessarily always be considered a home. Drawing on policy documents and parliamentary debates, the paper identifies the persistence of normative conceptions of household transition, and shifting ideals of what counts as ‘home’ across the life-course. Ultimately the paper concludes that these normative assumptions enable policy makers to promote this policy as a matter of ‘fairness’ rather than a form of social and spatial injustice.
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Accepted/In Press date: 21 February 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 April 2017
Published date: August 2017
Keywords:
equalities, life-course, shared living, wellbeing, youth
Organisations:
Population, Health & Wellbeing (PHeW)
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 407322
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/407322
ISSN: 0261-0183
PURE UUID: cf7f09b4-5f41-49e0-a427-16175b564e21
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Date deposited: 01 Apr 2017 01:15
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 12:16
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Author:
Iliana Ortega Alcazar
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