Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance he has provided to local authorities on allocating discretionary housing payments to claimants accommodated within domestic violence refuges who have been notified that their benefit entitlement will reduce as a result of changes to the benefit cap.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The departmental Discretionary Housing Payment Guidance Manual makes clear to Local authorities that they should ensure victims of domestic abuse receive the support they need.
A link to the Guidance Manual is enclosed below
Overall funding of £870 million has been committed for Discretionary Housing Payments over five years. As part of this, £150 million has been allocated for this financial year (2016/17) and £185 million will be allocated next year (2017/18).
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the recent reduction in the benefit cap on the time taken for specialist domestic abuse refuges to secure move-on accommodation for claimants whose benefit entitlements will decrease.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Housing benefit paid to claimants in refuges designated as specified accommodation by a local authority is disregarded when deciding whether or not the benefit cap applies.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the recent reduction in the benefit cap on the affordability of housing for claimants who have recently left refuge or temporary accommodation in the (a) social rented sector and (b) private rented sector.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The lower benefit cap aims to build on the successful outcomes of the existing benefit cap and to strengthen work incentives. It also aims to impose a reasonable limit on the total amount of benefits that a household can receive, with the aim of promoting fairness for taxpayers and fairness between those on benefits and those in working households. The Government believes that those who are on benefits and not in work should have to make the same choices as those in work about the size of their family and where they can afford to live.
To help ensure Local Authorities are able to protect the most vulnerable housing benefit claimants and to support households adjusting to reforms, the government will provide £870 million funding for the Discretionary Housing Payments scheme over the next 5 years from 2016/17.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance he has provided to local authorities on allocating discretionary housing payments to claimants accommodated within domestic violence refuges who have been notified that their benefit entitlement will reduce as a result of changes to the benefit cap.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The departmental Discretionary Housing Payment Guidance Manual makes clear to Local authorities that they should ensure victims of domestic abuse receive the support they need.
A link to the Guidance Manual is enclosed below
Overall funding of £870 million has been committed for Discretionary Housing Payments over five years. As part of this, £150 million has been allocated for this financial year (2016/17) and £185 million will be allocated next year (2017/18).
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the potential effect of reducing the benefit cap to £23,000 in London and £20,000 elsewhere on the (a) health and wellbeing and (b) mental health of children living in households affected by that reduction.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The new cap levels better reflect the circumstances of many hard working families in the country. Around 4 out of 10 households earn less than £20,000 and in Greater London around 4 out of 10 households earn less than £23,000.
The Government believes that encouraging households to move into work through the new benefit cap will help to increase the household’s income and help to improve their wellbeing:
Research shows that for people without work, re-employment leads to improvement in health and wellbeing, whereas further unemployment leads to deterioration. Research also shows that it is not in the best interests of children to live in workless households. For example, children in households where neither parent is in work are much more likely to have challenging behaviour at age 5 than children in households where both parents are in paid employment.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the potential effect of reducing the benefit cap to £23,000 in London and £20,000 elsewhere on the (a) health and wellbeing and (b) mental health of people affected by that reduction.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The new cap levels better reflect the circumstances of many hard working families in the country. Around 4 out of 10 households earn less than £20,000 and in Greater London around 4 out of 10 households earn less than £23,000.
The Government believes that encouraging households to move into work through the new benefit cap will help to increase the household’s income and help to improve their wellbeing:
Research shows that for people without work, re-employment leads to improvement in health and wellbeing, whereas further unemployment leads to deterioration. Research also shows that it is not in the best interests of children to live in workless households. For example, children in households where neither parent is in work are much more likely to have challenging behaviour at age 5 than children in households where both parents are in paid employment.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of households in each local authority area in London whose weekly income will be reduced by (a) under £20, (b) between £21 and £39.99, (c) between £40 and £59.99, (d) between £60 and £79.99, (e) between £80 and £99.99 and (d) over £100 as a result of the introduction of the lower benefit cap.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The information requested is in table 1 below.
Table 1: Average weekly reduction in Housing Benefit due to introduction of the lower benefit cap, 2016/17
| Under £20 | between £20 and £39.99 | between £40 and £59.99 | Over £60 | Total |
Barking and Dagenham | 100 | 100 | 300 | - | 500 |
Barnet | 200 | 300 | 300 | - | 800 |
Bexley | - | 100 | 200 | - | 300 |
Brent | 300 | 500 | 700 | - | 1500 |
Bromley | - | - | 200 | - | 200 |
Camden | 100 | 200 | 200 | - | 600 |
City of London | - | - | - | - | - |
Croydon | 100 | 100 | 500 | - | 700 |
Ealing | 400 | 300 | 700 | - | 1300 |
Enfield | 200 | 400 | 600 | - | 1200 |
Greenwich | 100 | 100 | 200 | - | 400 |
Hackney | 300 | 500 | 400 | - | 1200 |
Hammersmith and Fulham | 200 | 100 | 200 | - | 500 |
Haringey | 200 | 300 | 400 | - | 800 |
Harrow | 100 | 100 | 200 | - | 300 |
Havering | 100 | 100 | 200 | - | 300 |
Hillingdon | 200 | 100 | 200 | - | 500 |
Hounslow | 100 | 100 | 300 | - | 500 |
Islington | 100 | 200 | 200 | - | 600 |
Kensington and Chelsea | 100 | 200 | 200 | - | 500 |
Kingston upon Thames | - | 100 | 100 | - | 200 |
Lambeth | 200 | 100 | 300 | - | 600 |
Lewisham | 100 | 100 | 400 | - | 600 |
Merton | - | 100 | 100 | - | 200 |
Newham | 200 | 100 | 500 | - | 800 |
Redbridge | 100 | 100 | 200 | - | 400 |
Richmond upon Thames | - | - | 100 | - | 200 |
Southwark | 100 | 100 | 200 | - | 500 |
Sutton | - | - | 100 | - | 100 |
Tower Hamlets | 200 | 200 | 500 | - | 900 |
Waltham Forest | 200 | 100 | 300 | - | 600 |
Wandsworth | 200 | 100 | 300 | - | 600 |
Westminster | 200 | 200 | 400 | - | 800 |
Notes:
The benefit cap will be lowered from 7th November from £26,000 to £20,000, except in London where it will be lowered to £23,000 (a lower cap applies to single adult households). To help ensure Local Authorities are able to protect the most vulnerable Housing Benefit claimants and to support households adjusting to our welfare reforms, the Government will provide £870m funding for Discretionary Housing Payments over the next 5 years from 2016/17. Information about this and other measures to ease the transition for families affected by this policy change is included in the latest impact assessment at the link above.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the potential effect of reducing the benefit cap to £23,000 in London and £20,000 elsewhere on helping unemployed people into work.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Evaluation evidence of the original benefit cap showed that capped households were 41% more likely to enter work than similar non-capped households. Looking at London alone, capped households were 70% more likely to enter work than similar non-capped London households. The new tiered benefit cap strengthens work incentives and ensures that the work incentive effects are better felt across the country.
To help individuals into employment, a range of employment support and advice is available from Jobcentres, including for claimants who do not have any conditionality requirements. This includes additional work coach time for those claimants not already fully supported in their work search. Households who may be affected by the new benefit cap were informed of the support on offer in advance to help them move into work.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of extending the shared accommodation rate to social rented housing on levels of homelessness among people under 35, in light of the Government's decision to exempt single under 35 year olds from the shared accommodation rate in supported accommodation but not in general needs social rented housing.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Full impact and equality impact assessments will be undertaken in due course.
It should however be noted that a number of exemptions to the shared accommodation rate already exist for the under 35s in the private rented sector and, as a minimum, they will be brought forward in relation to general needs housing in the Social Rented Sector. The exemptions are:
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of extending the shared accommodation rate to social rented housing on the ability of single people under the age of 35 to move on from supported accommodation into general needs social rented housing given the Government's decision to exempt single under 35 year olds from the shared accommodation rate while living in supported accommodation only.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Full impact and equality impact assessments will be undertaken in due course.
It should however be noted that a number of exemptions to the shared accommodation rate already exist for the under 35s in the private rented sector and, as a minimum, they will be brought forward in relation to general needs housing in the Social Rented Sector. The exemptions are: