A home of one’s own? Housing welfare for ‘young adults’ in times of austerity

Abstract

This article 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 article focuses on the 2012 changed age-threshold for the Shared Accommodation Rate of Local Housing Allowance, which meant that single people (without dependants) aged between 25 and 34 are only entitled to claim the cost of a single room in a shared property. This policy has highlighted the issue of forced sharing, and poses questions as to whether a shared property with strangers can necessarily always be considered a home. The article identifies the persistence of normative conceptions of household transition across the life-course. Ultimately the article concludes that these normative assumptions enable policy makers to promote this policy as a matter of ‘fairness’ rather than a form of social injustice.