Oral Answers to Questions

Rebecca Long Bailey Excerpts

Monday 13th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

May I gently say that Members should be addressing the Chair and looking this way?

[Rebecca Long Bailey (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)]

T3. More than 7,000 people in Salford are on the housing waiting list, which is forcing many to rent privately, but the under-35 rule means that younger vulnerable constituents claiming universal credit receive only enough to cover a single room in a shared house, with people they do not know. One of my constituents fled domestic abuse and they do not meet the narrow criteria for exemption until 2023. Will the Secretary of State commit today to urgently expand exemptions from the shared accommodation rate?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Will Quince)]

I thank the hon. Lady for that question. As she knows, we have brought forward two of the exemptions to the shared accommodation rate. We have committed to the third, and if I can accelerate it, of course I will do so.