Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the benefits of excluding (a) savings in lifetime and (b) help-to-buy ISAs from the eligibility calculation for housing benefit.

No assessment has been made. The fundamental purpose of Housing Benefit is to help people on low incomes pay their rent. As it is an income related benefit, regard must be had to all income and capital when assessing entitlement. Whilst it is important to encourage saving, it has never been thought right for substantial amounts of capital to be ignored altogether when deciding entitlement to a benefit based on need.

However, as ISAs are treated as capital, entitlement to Housing Benefit is only affected if the amount held in an ISA exceeds £6,000 for working age people or £10,000 for people over pension age. Housing Benefit claimants who are also receiving a passporting benefit such as Income Support or Pension Credit have all their capital disregarded.