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<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>
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