Abstract
This paper will summarise and examine the impacts of social security reform on British housing policy. Social security
system has played an important role in supporting those with low income to secure their dwellings as well as stimulating
housing market. However, British social security system has become more complex with several tax credit systems, which
was expected to increase work incentives for those in working ages, introduced since the 1990s. It has also become serious
issues for the government to control social expenditures since the financial crisis since the 2010s. The conservative
government has conducted social security reform in which several cash benefits would be integrated to a single cash
benefit, Universal Credit. The reform has faced many technical difficulties and full implementation has been delayed, but it
would be completed within several years and current Housing Benefit would be replaced by new Universal Credit. The
prospects of the reform are still unclear, although the quality of dwellings and the level of benefits would be a matter of
debate continuously.
