Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of benefit claimants in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England are in rent arrears; and what steps her Department is taking to support benefit claimants in those areas in rent arrears.

We do not hold this information.

For 2020/21 we are projected to have spent almost £30 billion to support renters with their housing costs. This includes a boost of almost £1 billion to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) in response to Covid-19, which provided 1.5 million households in the private rented sector with around £600 more in housing support over the year. In 2021/22 all LHA rates will be maintained at their increased level, meaning claimants will continue to benefit from the significant increase in rates

For those claimants struggling with their single monthly rent payment and as a result are at risk of financial harm there are alternative payment arrangements.

For those who require additional support with housing costs Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. For 2021/22 £140m is being made available for DHPs. Since 2011 we have provided over £1 billion in DHP funding.