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1694563

	registered interest
	date	07/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he made an assessment of the potential merits of removing the under-occupancy penalty during the preparation of the Spring Budget.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	17656
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/03/2024 answer text <p>No assessment has been made.</p><p> </p><p>The removal of the spare room subsidy (RSRS) policy applies to claims for housing support where the claimant is living in the social rented sector in a property that is considered to have more bedrooms than the household requires.</p><p> </p><p>The policy helps encourage mobility within the social rented sector to make better use of the existing social housing stock and strengthens work-incentives.</p><p> </p><p>There are no plans to abolish this policy and easements are available to support disabled people and carers, the families of disabled children, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel and people who have suffered a bereavement. The deduction does not apply to pensioners in receipt of Housing Benefit.</p><p> </p><p>For individuals who may require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) may be available. DHP payments are entirely at the discretion of the local authority and since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion to local authorities.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 12/03/2024 14:38:37 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1674179

	registered interest
	date	29/11/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the amount of deductions made under the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy to (a) Housing Benefit and (b) Universal Credit claimants in each year since 2013.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow East
	tabling member printed	David Linden
	uin	4510
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/12/2023 answer text <p>Information on the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) sufficient to produce such an estimate can be found on Stat-Xplore. Stat-Xplore includes the mean of RSRS reduction, the number subject to the RSRS and the number of spare rooms for both Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Element Claimants.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Stat-Xplore can be found <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml" target="_blank">here.</a></p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 04/12/2023 16:13:32 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4640 label Biography information for David Linden

1645680

	registered interest
	date	19/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a review of the under-occupancy penalty.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	190042
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/06/2023 answer text <p>There are no plans to review the Removal of the Spare Room policy.</p><p> </p><p>The policy applies to claims for housing support where the claimant is living in the social rented sector in a property that is deemed too large for their needs. The policy aims to strengthen work incentives and seeks to encourage greater mobility within the social rented sector.</p><p> </p><p>There are easements to the policy which allow for the provision of an additional bedroom in certain circumstances, such as to support the needs of disabled people. Pensioners in receipt of Housing Benefit are exempt from the policy.</p><p> </p><p>Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available for those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided nearly £1.6 billion in funding to local authorities for DHPs.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 22/06/2023 15:38:16 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1645681

	registered interest
	date	19/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the impact of the removal of the spare bedroom subsidy on levels of spending on (a) housing benefit and (b) discretionary housing payments in Wales in each year since April 2013.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	190071
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/06/2023 answer text <p>The Department has not made an assessment of the full impact of the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy on levels of spending on Housing Benefit (HB). We estimate that the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) policy, between May 2013 and February 2023, has seen deductions from Housing Benefit (HB) expenditure in Wales of £190 million. This is broken down for each financial year below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Financial Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong> Total RSRS deductions for HB in Wales </strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013/14*</p></td><td><p>£21m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>£22m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>£22m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>£22m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>£22m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018/19</p></td><td><p>£21m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019/20</p></td><td><p>£18m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020/21</p></td><td><p>£16m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021/22</p></td><td><p>£14m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022/23*</p></td><td><p>£12m</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>*These years do not include the full 12 months. 2013/14 excludes April 2013 as there is no data for this month. 2022/23 excludes March 2023 as this data is not yet available.</p><p> </p><p>This estimate is based on those households with the RSRS deduction applied. For a full impact assessment, the behavioural impact of the policy would need to be considered, for example where households with a spare bedroom have moved to a right-sized property.</p><p> </p><p>As asked for the total RSRS deductions are for Housing Benefit only, and do not include deductions for those in receipt of the Universal Credit Housing Element (UCHE). Over the time period shown there has been migration of cases from HB to UCHE, and the majority of new claims for housing support for those of working age will be for UCHE since its introduction.</p><p> </p><p>The impact of the RSRS on Discretionary Housing Payment spending has not been fully assessed. DHP funding has historically been distributed using four funding streams based on DWPs best measures of housing need, these are Local expenditure on Housing Benefit (HB)/Universal Credit Housing Element (UCHE), Local Housing Allowance (LHA) shortfalls, RSRS deductions and Benefit Cap deductions. Although the funding is distributed using this broad methodology, local authorities spend according to their own criteria. As part of annual returns LAs include a breakdown of their expenditure by measure including RSRS, though DHP stats include this breakdown only at national level.</p><p>The overall RSRS expenditure reported to DWP by Welsh Local Authorities between April 2013 and March 2022 has been over £30 million. This is broken down for each financial year below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Financial Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>RSRS Expenditure in DHP by Local Authorities in Wales</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Percentage of LA’s information is available for</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013-14</p></td><td><p>£3,116,498</p></td><td><p>73%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014-15</p></td><td><p>£4,427,275</p></td><td><p>86%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015-16</p></td><td><p>£3,045,024</p></td><td><p>77%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016-17</p></td><td><p>£3,360,025</p></td><td><p>82%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017-18</p></td><td><p>£3,062,745</p></td><td><p>77%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018-19</p></td><td><p>£3,204,905</p></td><td><p>86%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019-20</p></td><td><p>£2,821,180</p></td><td><p>82%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020-21</p></td><td><p>£3,702,173</p></td><td><p>91%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021-22</p></td><td><p>£4,247,069</p></td><td><p>100%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>* Monitoring returns were not provided by all local authorities; for those that did, not all could provide the detailed breakdown</p><p>This table shows the expenditure of Welsh LAs on DHPS in respect to RSRS, not what DWP provide to Welsh LAs as a contribution of funding DHPs. DHP statistics are available online:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/discretionary-housing-payments-statistics" target="_blank">Discretionary Housing Payments statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 22/06/2023 15:42:17 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1600567

	registered interest
	date	01/03/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government how many households in England are affected by the under-occupancy charge for (1) one extra bedroom, or (2) more than one extra bedroom; and what assessment they have made of the financial impact of these deductions on those households.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL6023
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2023 answer text <p>For the latest data available, related to September 2022, 286,149 households were subject to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) for 1 extra bedroom, and 63,759 for 2 or more extra bedrooms. This data is available on Stat-Xplore.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>For 2021/22, a total of £434m worth of deductions were made for RSRS in Great Britain. This includes households on Universal Credit and Housing Benefit. No wider assessment has been made.</p><p> </p><p>The RSRS policy applies to claims for housing support - either Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit - where the claimant is living in the social rented sector in a property that is deemed too large for their needs.</p><p> </p><p>The policy helps encourage mobility within the social rented sector to make better use of the existing social housing stock and strengthens work-incentives. An additional bedroom is allowed in certain circumstances such as for disabled people and carers, foster carers, and parents of service personnel. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.</p><p> </p><p>Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) are available for those who need additional support with housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided nearly £1.6 billion in DHP’s to local authorities.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 09/03/2023 12:33:58 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1586759

	registered interest
	date	17/02/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the (a) financial and (b) mental health impacts on families of the removal of the spare room subsidy during the cost of living crisis; and if he will make it his policy to abolish that penalty.
	tabling member constituency	Putney
	tabling member printed	Fleur Anderson
	uin	147436
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2023 answer text <p>No assessment has been made.</p><p> </p><p>The removal of the spare room subsidy policy applies to claims for housing support where the claimant is living in the social rented sector in a property that is deemed too large for their needs. The policy aims to strengthen work incentives and seeks to encourage greater mobility within the social rented sector.</p><p> </p><p>There are no plans to abolish the policy, and certain easements are available which allow for the provision of an additional bedroom in certain circumstances, such as to support the needs of disabled people.</p><p> </p><p>Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available for those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided nearly £1.6 billion in funding to local authorities for DHPs.</p><p> </p><p>We are doing more to help households who may be struggling. The government announced substantial cost of living support for 2023/24 in the Autumn Statement. This is intended to provide stability and certainty for households and includes Cost of Living Payments for the most vulnerable, meaning around 8 million households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to a further £900 in Payments in 2023/24. Benefits and state pensions will also be uprated by 10.1% in 2023-24.</p><p> </p><p>For those who need additional support the Government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding, including Barnett impact, to enable a further extension to the Household Support Fund in England over the 2023/24 financial year. In England, this scheme will be backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which local authorities will use to help households with the cost of essentials. It will be for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding. Local Authorities are expected to support households in the most need, and in particular those who may not be eligible for the other support government has recently made available.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 27/02/2023 15:19:17 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4788 label Biography information for Fleur Anderson

1580101

	registered interest
	date	24/01/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment has he made of the effectiveness of the under-occupancy penalty; and what steps he is taking to help ensure that penalty does not contribute to household poverty.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	131249
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/02/2023 answer text <p>No assessment has been made.</p><p> </p><p>The removal of the spare room subsidy policy applies to claims for housing support where the claimant is living in the social rented sector in a property that is deemed too large for their needs. The policy aims to strengthen work incentives and seeks to encourage greater mobility within the social rented sector.</p><p> </p><p>The policy allows for the provision of an additional bedroom in certain circumstances such as to support the needs of disabled people and carers.</p><p> </p><p>For those who require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available from local authorities. DHPs can be paid to those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided nearly £1.6 billion in DHP’s to local authorities.</p><p> </p><p>In November 2022 at Autumn Budget the Chancellor announced a significant package of cost of living support for the most vulnerable claimants for 2023/24, meaning around 8 million households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to a further £900 in Payments in 2023/24. We are also continuing to provide support to all households through the Energy Price Guarantee which will save the average UK household £500 in 2023-24. The benefit cap will also be uprated by 10.1% in 2023-24.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, to protect the most vulnerable, working-age and disability benefits will be increased in line with inflation for 2023-24.</p><p> </p><p>The government is also extending the Household Support Fund providing an additional £1bn to help with the cost of household essentials, for the 2023-24 financial year, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £2.5 billion. In England this will be delivered through an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which local authorities use to help households with the cost of essentials. It will be for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their additional Barnett funding.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 01/02/2023 12:01:13 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1540820

	registered interest
	date	08/11/2022
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of households in receipt of the spare room subsidy are in employment as of 8 November 2022.
	tabling member constituency	Ellesmere Port and Neston
	tabling member printed	Justin Madders
	uin	82346
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2022 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 17/11/2022 14:01:15 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4418 label Biography information for Justin Madders

1536840

	registered interest
	date	27/10/2022
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households are subject to the under-occupancy penalty on the basis of under-occupying two bedrooms or more in (a) Newport East constituency and (b) Wales.
	tabling member constituency	Newport East
	tabling member printed	Jessica Morden
	uin	72962
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/11/2022 answer text <p>The latest available data on households subject to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy can be found on <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">Stat-Xplore</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The relevant data sets are ‘Housing Benefit - Data from April 2018’ - which can be filtered by ‘Number of Spare Rooms’ and ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’ - and ‘Households on Universal Credit’ - which can be filtered by ‘Number of Spare Bedrooms’ and ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’.</p><p>Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html" target="_blank">here.</a></p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 72963 question first answered 01/11/2022 18:00:20 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	1548 label Biography information for Jessica Morden

1536841

	registered interest
	date	27/10/2022
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households are subject to the under-occupancy penalty on the basis of under-occupying one bedroom in (a) Newport East constituency and (b) Wales.
	tabling member constituency	Newport East
	tabling member printed	Jessica Morden
	uin	72963
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/11/2022 answer text <p>The latest available data on households subject to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy can be found on <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/" target="_blank">Stat-Xplore</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The relevant data sets are ‘Housing Benefit - Data from April 2018’ - which can be filtered by ‘Number of Spare Rooms’ and ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’ - and ‘Households on Universal Credit’ - which can be filtered by ‘Number of Spare Bedrooms’ and ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’.</p><p>Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found <a href="https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html" target="_blank">here.</a></p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 72962 question first answered 01/11/2022 18:00:20 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	1548 label Biography information for Jessica Morden