Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the implications of its policies of the Supreme Court ruling in November 2016 on the under occupancy penalty; and what estimate he has made of how many people in (a) Southwark and (b) England were incorrectly charged.

We are considering the Supreme Court judgment and what changes are required to comply with its terms, including additional exemptions where appropriate.

Claims are assessed by local authorities in line with the Housing Benefit or Universal Credit regulations that apply at the time.

Claimants affected by the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy policy are able to apply to their local authority for a Discretionary Housing Payment. In the previous Parliament, we significantly increased funding for Discretionary Housing Payments to £470 million and we have already committed a further £870 million in Discretionary Housing Payment funding between 2016/17 and 2020/21.