Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of restricting housing benefit entitlement for single social tenants under the age of 35 to the Shared Accommodation Rate of the relevant Local Housing Allowance on (a) levels of homelessness and (b) the availability of social housing for that age group.

Justin Tomlinson

The introduction of Local Housing Allowance limits to housing benefit and Universal Credit houisng element awards will only apply from April 2018, where new tenancies have been taken out or renewed after April 2016.

Tenants who take on a new tenancy or renew a tenancy will have the opportunity to consider whether they can afford to take on the property before committing to it. Because of the element of choice it is not possible to accurately estimate whether there will be any impact upon homelessness or the availability of social housing.