Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data her Department holds on the number of households in the private rented sector in receipt of universal credit with the housing element in payment; how many and what proportion of those households have rents which exceed the local housing allowance (LHA); and what the median average gap is for those households between the rent and the LHA, for each broad rental market area in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales for the most recent period for which data are available.
The requested information is in the following attachment.
In April 2020 we increased Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local rents, costing nearly £1 billion and providing 1.5 million claimants with around £600 more housing support in 2020/21 than they would otherwise have received. Local Housing Allowance rates have been maintained at their increased levels in 2021/22 and will remain at those levels for 2022/23.
Median differences between rent and Local Housing Allowance in different broad rental market areas, reflect variation in rental markets.
The Government is providing £12 billion of support to ease cost of living pressures, with help targeted at working families, low-income households and the most vulnerable. A further
£9 billion has been announced to protect against the impact of rising global energy prices.