Are a third of families a month away from losing their homes?

Widespread reports today claim to highlight the latest evidence of the UK's housing crisis and the plight faced by hard-pressed, low-income working families.

They are based on a YouGov survey carried out for housing charity Shelter that found more than a third of families with at least one working parent are "close to homelessness", says Sky News.

In particular, the poll asked how long the 1,581 families questioned could continue to pay their rent or mortgage if the main breadwinner was to lose their job, to which 37 per cent said they could not do so for more than one month.

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Even starker, 23 per cent said they would not be able to meet even the next month's rent or mortgage.

Shelter said: "These worrying findings mirror recent government figures, which show there are 16.5 million working age adults in the UK with no savings at all."

Chief executive Campbell Robb said the study was "a stark reminder that sky-high housing costs are leaving millions of working families stretched to breaking point and barely scraping by from one pay cheque to the next."

He added: "The new government has a real chance to show working families they’re on their side by protecting and improving our welfare safety net. It’s vital that if life does takes a turn for the worse, there’s enough support available for families so that they don’t go hurtling towards homelessness."

But writing on Forbes, Tim Worstall, a fellow at the Adam Smith Institute, says the study is "a truly terrible report" that falls into the "fallacy" of calling "for more to solve some problem without taking account of what is already done to solve said problem".

He adds that Shelter does not consider the support available through housing benefit, which is paid to those with less than £16,000 in savings who are below a certain income threshold and struggle to meet housing costs.

As a last measure, says Worstall, social housing is offered to those who genuinely find themselves homeless as a result of financial hardship.

Worstall adds: "The UK does have a welfare system. It’s not perfect, Lord knows it’s not that, but it does do pretty well at stopping people from becoming homeless."