Chris Bryant – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Bryant on 2014-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much additional funding each local authority will receive to enable it to investigate whether claimants are eligible for refund of under-occupancy penalty payments in 2014-15.

Esther McVey

The Department has allocated a total of £18.4 million to local authorities to support the ongoing administrative costs of implementing welfare reform changes in 2014/15. This includes £2.1million for the estimated costs of identifying claimants affected by the unintended exemption, which will be allocated to local authorities in line with the published number of claimants affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy in each local authority. Further details are included in a Housing Benefit circular at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hb-subsidy-circular-s22014-additional-funding-to-meet-the-costs-of-implementing-welfare-reform-changes-in-apr-2014-to-mar-2015

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