Universal Credit: Pensioners – Parliamentary Written Answer

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how pensioners in receipt of universal credit in mixed-couple households where one partner is over pensionable age and the other is below will be affected by the under-occupation penalty.

Damian Hinds: All mixed aged couples who under-occupy social housing, are subject to the policy to remove the spare room subsidy, if one partner is in receipt of Universal Credit. This is because working age claimants are better placed to meet a rent shortfall through taking up employment or increasing their working hours; and over the long term, this measure helps ensure that people move to more suitably sized accommodation before both members of a couple reach state pension age.

Local Housing Allowance In General Needs Social Housing

From 1 April 2018, the way Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit is calculated will change for tenants in general needs social housing. If a claimant has signed a new or renewed tenancy from 1 April 2016 the amount of benefit will be restricted to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) level for that size of household. This restriction will apply to people over pension age. If the tenant is single and under 35 years old the benefit eligible rent and service charge will be capped to a shared accommodation rate (SAR) unless an exemption applies. The DWP has not yet published regulations governing this measure and details maybe subject to change but housing associations and tenants should start preparing now to deal with the possible impact of the policy. Read more on the NHF website.

Social Rented Housing: Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people above pensionable age and living in general needs accommodation who will be deemed to be under-occupying their home and will have their housing benefit reduced in accordance with their household size as opposed to their property size as a result of the cap on housing benefit for social housing tenants to the Local Housing Allowance Rate; and what the average loss incurred by this group of people will be.

Caroline Nokes: This measure will be introduced in April 2018, where new tenancies have been taken out or existing tenancies renewed from 1 April 2016 (or 1 April 2017 for supported housing). Full impact and equality impact assessments will be undertaken in due course.

Reviving the Economy by Moving Out the 'Bedroom Blockers'

Lord Best has come up with a new strategy that will, in his words, "solve all the country's problems".  Here's what the peer proposes: building 100,000 retirement, supported housing and extra-care homes a year. The trickledown effect will, in one handy flourish, pull Britain out of double-dip recession while also solving the country's acute and growing housing crisis.  The boost to the construction industry would, by his calculations, create between 300,000 and 500,000 new jobs.  Building 100,000 homes designed especially for the needs of an ageing population would also help to house 350,000 other people. By selling their under-occupied large family homes and downsizing to smaller, specialist properties, our older people could help a whole generation of potential first-time buyers who are priced out of the market.  Lord Best said many of these homes would have been untouched and undecorated for up to 35 years, and so would sell at the lower end of average market value and be affordable to families struggling through recession. "Nearly all of the 7.8m people of pensionable age have more than two spare rooms, making way for 350,000 family [members] with children."  Read more on the Guardian website.