ABSTRACT
Housing benefit is the problem that won’t go away, but no one, least of all government, can decide how to deal with. Throughout 1999, government ministers indicated that major reforms to housing benefit were to be proposed in the housing green paper due out in that year. However, as the leaves fell from the trees, the promised green paper failed to appear and ministers became much more guarded about reforming housing benefit. When the green paper was finally published in April 2000 the issue of housing benefit reform had been superseded by other priorities. Minor changes were proposed, but the overhauling of the benefit system was to be put off for a decade.
