Oral Answers to Questions

Eilidh Whiteford Excerpts

Monday 28th January 2013 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Dr Eilidh Whiteford (Banff and Buchan) (SNP)]

1. What estimate he has made of the number of households in Scotland affected by the new under-occupancy rules for housing benefit.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

The social sector size criteria, which will be introduced from April, will align housing benefit rules for those living in social sector accommodation with those already applied to claimants living in the private rented sector. We estimate that around 80,000 households in Scotland could be affected.

[Dr Whiteford]

The vast majority of tenants affected by this policy have no realistic prospect of finding a smaller, cheaper house. It also has many implications for devolved policy areas. Will the Minister ask the Secretary of State to show his respect for the Scottish Parliament by appearing in person before its Welfare Reform Committee?

[Steve Webb]

Obviously, the impact of housing benefit policy, which is a matter for the UK Parliament, will be different in different parts of the country. I have been to the Scottish Parliament and talked to the Deputy First Minister about welfare reform and we keep a dialogue open with our colleagues in Scotland.