The housing crisis is hitting middle-income earners at an alarming rate, according to new research.

However, work has risen by 350,000 since 2008, a rate of more than 58,000 a year, the National Housing Federation has revealed.

The new research from the report 'Broken Market, Broken Dreams', shows that middle-income households earning between £20,000 and £30,000 a year accounted for two thirds of all new housing benefit claims during the last six years, as the struggle to afford a home gets tougher.

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With the proportion of households having to claim housing benefit despite being in work doubling to 22% since 2008, the National Housing Federation predicts that this figure could rise to one in three in the next five years.

The Federation suggests that increasing housing costs are behind the rise in middle-income claimants. It also highlights the impact of years of only building half of the number of homes needed, stagnant wages and more people renting privately due to a critical shortage of affordable homes.

Between November 2008 and May 2014 there were 570,000 new households claiming housing benefit who were also in work – almost 300 households per day.

The National Housing Federation is calling for more genuinely affordable housing to be built, so that hard working families have a decent home they can afford, without adding to the housing benefit bill.

(CD/JP)