YY, the new housing policy has ALREADY been made law. It's happening next April.
From then, the bedroom tax will be in full force. This affects people like me, who went for a low-quality 2 bed when HB was still allocated by cost (ie, I got a single person's allowance but found a 2-bed that it would cover). Now I'm not allowed to have a spare room and, from April, will be penalised. I will not get help with moving costs. It's unclear how the bedroom rule affects divorced parents and others with variable needs, for example two children one of whom has seizures and cannot safely share.
Council tax benefit will only be 80% even for those with full entitlement.
Councils' obligation to house the homeless is limited to finding a place for them - anywhere in the country. Say you and your family are evicted next April, maybe because your lease has run out or the landlord wants to refurbish (private tenancies are only 6 months by law, remember). You go to the council. They say they've found you a flat 400 miles away. You have to go. Never mind your jobs, DCs' school, family, doctors, everything: if you need the council's help with housing, you must go where they send you.
Bearing in mind that few low earners or non-earners can save the deposit (usually 2 months' rent) and the cost of moving to an unspecified location, this is clearly going to lead to utter chaos and widespread misery.
Housing associations are issuing financial warnings all over the country. The new law will make things even harder for them, presenting an imminent risk that floods of tenants - many vulnerable - will need rehousing, but no housing will be available at affordable levels.
The burden of housing benefits will fall on the councils people are moved into, not the ones getting rid of them. Since the cheapest housing is in the worst-funded areas, this may lead to councils going bankrupt or raising rents artificially to keep people out.
It is true that UC dictates part-time workers must attend jobsworth schemes, including workfare, interviews, box-ticking fiestas and whatever else the DWP tells them to when they tell them. This means that a part-time waitress may not be able to go into her paid work because she's been sent to work full-time, for nothing, by the jobcentre.
As part of this drive to force the nation into non-existent full-time jobs, everyone will have to put their CVs online, do their jobsearches, their diaries and their bookkeeping online ... and the records will be linked to all the other data held by the DWP. Going by past performance, this means that your medical records, bank details, address and your exact whereabouts will be available to any nine-year-old hacker and people who find USB sticks left on train seats.
I'm relieved to see Mad Ian's staff have left him and his UC system doesn't work! However, I wouldn't put it past him to push the thing through regardless - meaning that this insanity will be run by a garbled computer system, monies will be transferred randomly to the wrong people and 800 people will turn up for the same flat in Middlesbrough or workfare placement at Argos.
I can only think people aren't talking about it because they assume it's all scaremongering and no government could be this insane. Sadly, it is all true. The above - and more, and worse - has ALREADY been made law.
Oh, and don't think about challenging this through the courts as your legal rights have already been cut in half and they're just trying to wangle their secret proceedings bill through. That one means the government may choose whether to allow access to the details of any case. This includes controlling your access to the details of your own case.
Don't believe me? Check it out. I have. Then start telling everyone.