Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of ending the automatic entitlement to housing benefit for 18 to 21 year olds on the effectiveness of the measures in clauses 4 and 5 of the Homelessness Reduction Bill.

The ending of automatic entitlement to Universal Credit housing cost will only affect out of work claimants under new claims to Universal Credit in Full Service areas. Claimants on Housing Benefit will be unaffected.

The aims of the policy are to stop young people slipping straight into a life on benefits, and to ensure there is parity and fairness between employed young people who may not be able to afford to leave the family home and unemployed young people who, with the aid of out of work benefits, can.

However, Government recognises that some young people cannot remain living at home which is why the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Communities and Local Government have worked together with a wide range of stakeholders to develop a fair and robust set of exemptions to protect the most vulnerable, including young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

These include exemptions for young people in temporary accommodation and for those where it is inappropriate to live with their parents. Young people placed in supported housing, which is often used by local authorities to prevent or relieve homelessness, are not affected by this measure because they receive housing benefit. The detail of the funding arrangements for supported housing from 2019-20 onwards are still being worked through but we are very mindful of the needs of providers and the vulnerable young people they support.

The Government’s intention is that young people who cannot return to the family home can get help with housing costs quickly and easily and we will ensure Jobcentres and Service Centres have the guidance they need to make that happen. This will include them taking into account third party evidence that it is inappropriate for a young person to live with their parents. We know it is important that landlords have confidence in that process so they can continue to let properties to this group. We will be providing messages for landlords on gov.uk and as part of the engagement process in new Universal Credit areas.