Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households are in receipt of local housing allowance in payment, how many of those households have rents which exceed the local housing allowance rate; and of the latter households, what the median gap is between the rent and the LHA broken down by the number of children in the household in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales, for the most recent period for which data is available.

Requested information is in the following attachment.

In response to Covid-19 we increased LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local rents in April 2020. This significant investment of nearly £1billion has provided 1.5 million claimants with an average £600 more housing support last year than they would otherwise have received.

In 2021/22 claimants will continue to benefit from the increase. We are maintaining this investment by keeping LHA rates at the same levels from April 2021.