Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to undertake a review for categories of specified accommodation by (a) country, (b) region and (c) local authority area.

There are no plans to review the four categories of specified accommodation at a national or local level. However, we are reviewing the guidance for specified accommodation claims to improve consistency in decision-making.

The specified accommodation definition was introduced into Housing Benefit in 2014 to extend the protections for exempt accommodation to other categories of supported housing that, although not materially different, were subject to welfare reforms. As a result, housing support for people living in specified accommodation is paid through Housing Benefit rather than Universal Credit and this support is exempt from the Benefit Cap.

The specified accommodation definition applies to all of Housing Benefit across Great Britain