Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Autumn Statement 2022 on levels of household wealth in the North East.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Distributional Analysis published at Autumn Statement 2022 shows that government decisions made at this fiscal event are progressive: low-income households will receive the largest benefit in cash terms and as a percentage of income, and will on average be net beneficiaries from decisions on tax, welfare and amendments to the Energy Price Guarantee in 2023-24.
The government announced at Autumn Statement an additional £900 Cost of Living Payment in 2023-24, benefitting around 400,000 households in the North East. A further 266,000 households in social rented housing in the North East will benefit from the Social Rent Cap.
In addition, the government will shortly be agreeing an expanded mayoral devolution deal with local authorities in the North East.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of households in receipt of the spare room subsidy are in employment as of 8 November 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the under-occupancy penalty on those receiving housing benefit payments in the context of the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
For 2021/22, a total of £434m worth of deductions were made for the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) in Great Britain. This includes households on Universal Credit and Housing Benefit. No wider assessment has been made.
The RSRS policy allows for the provision of an additional bedroom in certain circumstances such as disabled people and carers, foster carers, and parents of service personnel. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.
Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) are available for those who need additional support with housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided almost £1.5billion in DHP’s to local authorities.
The Government announced over £37bn of cost of living support earlier this year which includes an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. This is in addition to the energy bill support announced in September.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households are subject to the under-occupancy penalty on the basis of under-occupying one bedroom in (a) Newport East constituency and (b) Wales.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest available data on households subject to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy can be found on Stat-Xplore.
The relevant data sets are ‘Housing Benefit - Data from April 2018’ - which can be filtered by ‘Number of Spare Rooms’ and ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’ - and ‘Households on Universal Credit’ - which can be filtered by ‘Number of Spare Bedrooms’ and ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households are subject to the under-occupancy penalty on the basis of under-occupying two bedrooms or more in (a) Newport East constituency and (b) Wales.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest available data on households subject to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy can be found on Stat-Xplore.
The relevant data sets are ‘Housing Benefit - Data from April 2018’ - which can be filtered by ‘Number of Spare Rooms’ and ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’ - and ‘Households on Universal Credit’ - which can be filtered by ‘Number of Spare Bedrooms’ and ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of retaining the spare room subsidy rules on recipients of Housing Benefit, in the context of the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
There are no plans to abolish the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy policy as it strengthens work incentives, is intended to create parity with those in receipt of benefits and renting in the private sector and seeks to encourage greater mobility within the social rented sector.
The policy allows for the provision of an additional bedroom for disabled people and carers, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel, and people who have suffered a recent bereavement. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.
Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) are available for those who need additional support with housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided almost £1.5billion in DHP’s to local authorities.
The Government announced over £37bn of cost of living support earlier this year which includes an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. This is in addition to the energy bill support announced in September.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many households are currently affected by the under-occupancy charge with deductions for (1) one extra bedroom, or (2) more than one extra bedroom; and what assessment they have made of the impact of these deductions given the increased cost of living.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The removal of the spare room subsidy is an important tool to make better use of the existing social housing stock, enable mobility within the social rented sector and contain growing housing support expenditure. It also aligns the size criteria rules used in the private rented sector in the social sector.
The policy allows for the provision of an additional bedroom to support disabled people and carers, the families of disabled children, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel, and people who have suffered a bereavement. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.
Those who need additional support with their housing costs can seek assistance from their local authority via the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHPs) scheme. Since 2011 the Government has provided almost £1.5 billion in DHP funding to local authorities.
The number of Households affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy is set out in the table below.
Households with a reduction due to the removal of the spare room subsidy, Great Britain, February 2022
One bedroom | Two or more bedrooms | Reduction applied but bedroom information is unknown |
396,100 | 84,900 | 500 |
Notes:
i. Figures are from Stat-Xplore and are rounded to the nearest hundred.
ii. Includes Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Element. Universal Credit data for February is provisional and will be within two per cent of revised figures in future releases.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has taken steps to ensure that households that are reliant on (a) oil heating and (b) solid fuel qualify for financial support under the Energy Company Obligation: Help to Heat scheme.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) does not provide direct financial support. Homes currently reliant on oil and solid fuel heating in off gas-grid areas can benefit from insulation or certain types of low carbon heating measures, such as heat pumps.
In order to qualify, these households must be on relevant means-tested benefits or identified by their local authority or energy supplier as vulnerable. For owner occupier households, the homes must also be energy efficiency Band D-G. For the private rented sector and social housing, the homes must be energy efficiency Band E-G.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the number of people downsizing as a result of the bedroom tax.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No recent estimate has been made. The final report into the evaluation of the removal of the spare room subsidy policy published in December 2015 found that up to eight per cent of those affected by the policy had downsized.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much revenue the spare room subsidy has accrued since its introduction.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The RSRS is not a revenue but a reduction in benefits to encourage movement of claimants over-occupying a property into a property of a suitable size.
Between its introduction in April 2013 and March 2021, reductions in Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Element from the RSRS totalled £2.8 billion.