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 are in rent arrears in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England; and what steps his Department is taking to help support benefit claimants who are in rent arrears.

The information requested is not held by the Department. For those UC claimants struggling with their single monthly rent payment, payment of housing costs can be made direct to landlords.

For 2022/23 we are projected to have spent almost £30 billion to support renters with their housing costs.

As announced in the Autumn Statement on 22 November, Local Housing Allowance rates will be increased from April 2024 to the 30th percentile of local market rents at a cost of £1.2 billion. This will mean 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (UC) will gain on average around £800 a year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024-25.

For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and need further support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion in DHP funding to local authorities.