Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many housing benefit claimants have been evicted as a result of rent arrears in each of the last 10 years.

The Department does not collect this information.

We have provided an unprecedented package of support throughout the pandemic, injecting billions into the welfare system for those most in need, including uplifting the Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of local market rents in each area, and are maintaining that uplift in cash terms for 2021/22.

In addition we have legislated through the Coronavirus Act 2020 to delay when landlords can evict tenants, a 6 month stay on possession proceedings in court and a pause on bailiffs enforcing eviction notices.

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 introduced the Duty to Refer, which came into force on 1 October 2018. This requires named public authorities, including jobcentres in England, to refer service users who they think may be homeless or threatened with homelessness to the local housing authority of the claimant’s choice. This earlier intervention is intended to give people the stability they need to move into, and remain in, work.