Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 May 2020 to Question 40669 on universal credit, prior to raising the local housing allowance to the 30th percentile, what assessment she made of the levels of need this would match.

Raising the local housing allowance (LHA) rate to the 30^th percentile ensured over 1 million households will see an increase, on average, of £600 this year.

This increase means that 30% of properties in each broad rental market area charge a rent within the LHA rate, with the exception of 15 rates in central and inner London where the national maximum caps continue to apply. The national caps have also been increased and are now based on the Outer London LHA rate plus 20%.