Housing: Underoccupancy Charge Debate
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Lord McAvoy
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Housing: Underoccupancy Charge
Lord McAvoy Excerpts(10 years, 9 months ago)
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Lord Freud
Yes, my Lords, the payment will of course go through as housing payment in the normal way.
Lord McAvoy (Lab)
My Lords, what a catalogue of disasters: the bedroom tax applied illegally to thousands of people; refunds that will be demanded and quite rightly paid; thousands paid a discretionary housing allowance by mistake and not obliged to repay the cash; and people forced to move house from areas they have lived in all of their lives. The Minister boasted of his role in introducing this tax. Will he now admit his personal responsibility in this disaster, and admit that it is a financial and a social disaster?
Lord Freud
My Lords, I will not. The department is engaged in a massive programme of reform. We have successfully brought in a benefit cap, and we have launched PIP, the universal credit and housing benefit reform, to name just a few.