HOUSING benefit payments of between £10,000 and £20,000 a year are being claimed by 80 people in Swindon.

The figure is the same as last year, but up on 2010 when just 30 people were in the highest payment bracket for the borough.

At the lower end, 14,620 people are claiming up to £10,000 a year, a rise of 200 on last year and 1,000 on 2010.

The figures were revealed by the Department for Work and Pensions after a Freedom of Information Act request by the Adver.

The Government is trying to reduce housing benefit payments by capping the amount people can claim based on the size of a property.

The move comes after a series of headlines about small families claiming tens of thousands of pounds a year to live in large houses.

A spokesman for the Depart-ment for Work and Pensions said: “The Government is reforming housing benefit to control benefit expenditure.

“Limits to the amount of housing benefit people are entitled to, based on their household size, will encourage people to make sensible decisions about what they can afford and encourage work incentives.”

The welfare shake-up also includes plans to introduce a ‘bedroom tax’ for council and housing association tenants who have more space than they need. Currently they are allowed to have one spare bedroom.

Louise Aldridge and her partner, who have five children, receive housing benefit of £627 a month to pay most of the rent for their three-bedroom house in York Street, Old Town.

They find the rest of the £750 payments themselves.

Miss Aldridge, 29, is in favour of the Government’s clamp-down on the grounds it will free up more space for families who desperately need it.

She said: “There are families with two parents and two children living in four-bedroom houses. It’s not fair.

“Where we used to live we were so short on space we had to use the dining room as a bedroom.

“There are families who are in bedsits waiting to be rehomed, while there are other people with spare bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms.

“What the Government is doing seems to be working as rental prices are coming down.”

Miss Aldridge, who suffers from bipolar disorder, said it was wrong to label all claimants as scroungers.

“People jump to conclusions,” she said. “What they don’t understand is that a year ago we had jobs, my partner had a mortgage and our lives were completely normal.

“He gave it all up to look after me when I fell ill. I am on medication most of the time and it goes back to the fact I had a bad childhood.

“Since this has happened we have worked out who our friends are.”