Housing: Underoccupancy Charge Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness Hollis of Heigham
Main Page: Baroness Hollis of Heigham (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Hollis of Heigham's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
(8 years, 5 months ago)
Lords ChamberThe way that this was introduced was to replicate what happens in the private sector, where the LHA does exactly that: it provides the family with what they require. The removal of the spare room subsidy brings the same system into the social sector as was introduced into the private sector by the very party that the noble Lord sits in.
My Lords, two-thirds of those affected by the bedroom tax have a disability. Will the Minister tell us what proportion of those people affected—the two-thirds—are actually receiving discretionary housing awards? The money does not stretch to them.
I have gone through these figures before. When you look at the numbers of disabled people who are subject to the spare room policy, 63% of the original number were disabled on a DDA basis but, by the time you take it on to the higher rate DLA basis, the figure was down to 17%.