TAXPAYERS forked out more than £22,000 in one year so a family could live in a five-bedroom detached house in a county village, the Oxford Mail can reveal.

The unnamed family got £22,021.65 housing benefit for the house in Woodeaton, seven miles north east of Oxford.

It was the highest 2010/11 housing benefit payout by South Oxfordshire District Council.

It comes after we revealed on Thursday that a family of ten in Cowley Marsh, Oxford, got about £26,000 a year in benefit rent payments since 2004.

And our figures show the five Oxfordshire councils paid out £158.4m in housing benefit in 2010/11, up from £105.1m in 2005/06.

New rules will cap annual claims from £104,000 to £20,800, while a controversial £25,000 limit on all benefits could hit housing benefit payments further.

Ministers say the move is vital to tackle the deficit – but critics fear families hit by the recession will be forced out of their homes.

Our figures show housing benefit also paid for four-bedroom detached homes in Didcot, Forest Hill, Holton and Chalgrove last year, costing taxpayers £63,948.

The biggest Vale of White Horse District Council claim was £16,310 for a four-bedroom Abingdon semi, while £14,122 went on a five-bed house in North Hinksey.

Total spending went from £13.7m in 2005/06 to £22.8m last year. This was £17.1m to £25.6m in South Oxfordshire and £11.4m to £17m in West Oxfordshire.

Here the biggest claim was £9,398 for a four-bedroom terraced house in Bampton.

Cherwell District Council’s highest claim was £17,030 for a three-bedroom detached house in the Bloxham & Bodicote area. Its spending rose from £19.1m in 2005/06 to £33.4m last year. In Oxford it went from £43.8m to £59.6m.

All claims are administered by district councils, but paid for by central government.

TaxPayers’ Alliance spokes-man Emma Boon said: “Many middle or low income families face a choice at some stage about whether they can afford a house of sufficient size to accommodate a large family in their area or whether they are going to have to move to somewhere more affordable.

“It is unfair to say that those on benefits should not have to face this same choice.”

Simon Hoare, Conservative resources cabinet member at West Oxfordshire District Council, said: “There is a great sense of unfairness. The Government is quite rightly trying to be balanced.”

But Liz Leffman, a trustee of the West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), branded the reforms “cruel” and put increases down to job cuts.

She said: “Cutting housing benefit at a time when jobs are going is particularly difficult, particularly in an area where there is a high degree of public sector employment.”

Families who covered their rent from their own pockets but took the benefit after losing their jobs now face downsizing, she said.

The Chartered Institute of Housing said the number of properties the benefit can fully cover will fall from 8,500 to 5,200 in Oxford; Cherwell 4,700 to 3,200; South Oxfordshire 4,400 to 2,700; Vale of White Horse 4,100 to 2,500 and West Oxfordshire 3,800 to 2,400.