Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will ensure that parents who share custody of a child are exempted from the under-occupancy penalty.

With 1.7 million households on the social housing waiting list in England alone, 250,000 households living in overcrowded conditions, and around 820,000 spare bedrooms being paid for within the social sector it was important that something be done to address this and the housing benefit bill that was spiralling out of control.

The removal of spare room subsidy was introduced in April 2013 for these reasons as well as to strengthen work incentives; encourage both mobility within the social sector and the better use of available social housing by social landlords. More importantly, this measure was required to bring about parity of treatment between private and social rented sectors tenants because it is only fair that housing benefit claimants living in the social sector should make the same considerations as private sector tenants about the affordability of their rent rather than relying upon the taxpayer to meet the costs of housing that may be too large for their needs.

Providing blanket exemptions to the policy were not considered to be the most effective or affordable approach to targeting resources for those who are vulnerable. Nor was it considered right that the taxpayer should provide bedrooms in separate households for the same child where parents are separated especially as this could act as a disincentive to work.

To mitigate the impact for those facing difficult situations money was added to the Discretionary Housing Payment scheme. For instance this financial year £60 million has been added specifically for this measure. This however forms only part of the overall funding of £125 million for 2015/16, and since April 2013, £470 million has been provided in DHP funding. This is a proportionate approach which is effective and provides local authorities, who administer Housing Benefit, with the right level of flexibility to ensure that those who are vulnerable receive the help they need, an approach that has also been upheld by the Courts.