Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab): What redress is
available to tenants whose landlords seek to evict them on the grounds that
they are housing benefit recipients subject to the benefits cap.
Iain Duncan Smith: Landlords must support their tenants in
maintaining their tenancy. All those affected by the cap have already been
contacted, most of them more than a year ago, so tenants uncertain about their
situation should have asked for a review by now, to check that they are
receiving all the benefits to which they are entitled. The local authority may
consider paying
discretionary housing payments, which we have already given
them, in negotiations with the landlord, to find a way to avoid eviction.
Barry Gardiner: The Secretary of State is precisely avoiding
the point. He knows very well that landlords are using as an excuse for getting
rid of tenants, and as a reason to evict them, the fact that they are on the
benefits cap. He said that the benefits cap would be a way of bringing rents
down, but it is not; it is a way of evicting tenants who are living on
benefits. That is appalling, and he needs to do something about it.
Mr Duncan Smith: On the implementation of the cap, people
have had over a year to work on this, and I know that local authorities are
working with them; we keep in constant contact with them. We will have given
local authorities more than £380 million in discretionary moneys. It is very
clear that if the issue is only the cap, there is no requirement for people to
be evicted. This is a reality, and authorities must work with them.
