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.

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.

Downsizing And Why Britain Needs A Plan To House Our Elderly

A new report has just put the spotlight on older people downsizing, suggesting that millions of under-occupied homes would be freed up and those moving would gain health and quality of life benefits. According to the report, part of the Housing our Ageing Population: Positive Ideas series from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Housing and Care for Older People, there are eight million people in the UK interested in downsizing. This, according to the APPG, could free up 3.5 million homes, including two million three or four-bedroom homes. Read more on the Extra Care website.

Fall In Social Housing Under-Occupation

The proportion of social housing households under-occupying their homes according to overcrowding standards has fallen to the lowest level on record. English Housing Survey findings show 8.6% of social housing households were under-occupying their homes by two bedrooms or more in 2014/15. This equates to 338,000 households and is the lowest level since 1995/96 when the survey statistics started. It suggests that welfare policies such as the bedroom tax, introduced in April 2013, could be having an effect on the proportion of social housing tenants under-occupying their homes. However, the under-occupying definition used in the statistics allows households to have one ‘spare’ bedroom before judged to be under-occupying, as opposed to the more stringent bedroom tax criteria, which don’t allow any. Download the Survey report from the CLG website.

Six Ways Landlords Can Help Social Housing Tenants To Move Home

From home swaps to financial support, here’s how to help tenants downsize to avoid the bedroom tax or move house for a new job.

·         Promote mutual exchange

·         Support all under-occupying tenants

·         Use the Localism Act

·         Help tenants to move to a different area

·         Support existing tenants to buy or rent

·         Use websites to search for a transfer

Read full details on the Guardian website.

Empty Bedrooms Undermine New Building

The growing trend towards under-occupation is exacerbating Britain’s housing crisis, according to new research from the Intergenerational Foundation. Building on previous studies from IF which have examined the issue of under-occupation, this report uses census data to show that nearly 1 million extra households were classed as under-occupying between 2001 and 2011 in England. In effect, this means that almost a fifth of all the extra space that was added to England’s housing stock throughout this period has been wasted, as the additional capacity it created was cancelled-out by the increasingly inefficient way in which our existing housing stock is being used. Download the report from the Intergenerational Foundation website.

The Impact of the Under-Occupation Deduction from Housing Benefit

One year on from the implementation of the policy - labelled the “bedroom tax” - several bodies published research into its impact; however, some of the reports are still based on outcomes at the 6 month implementation point. This note summarises some key findings of the ongoing studies into the impact of the under-occupation deduction. Download this Commons Library Standard Note from the Parliament website.

When It Comes To New Housing, We Need Quality As Well As Quantity

A basic lack of space in new homes is leading to confusion over the relationship between underoccupation and undersizing.  A housing crisis builds: demand goes up and supply goes down, while a groundswell of liberal voices calls for the development of more than 200,000 new homes a year.  Above all, they say, we just need to build more homes.  But if there's one thing we don't need, it's 200,000 more of the kind of homes we've been building up to now.  A new study carried out by academics at the University of Cambridge analysed 16,000 properties across England and compared them to the basic space standards set out in the London Housing Design Guide. Those working in housing and planning might be able to guess what came next: more than half (55%) fell short on floor space alone and a fifth (21%) were considered too small for comfortable habitation for the size of the household. Read more on the Guardian website.

Bedroom Tax Has Failed To Solve Under-Occupancy – Report

The government’s controversial bedroom tax has failed to ease under occupancy in the social housing sector, its main aim, a report has revealed. The 'Here and There: One year of the Bedroom Tax' report, composed by six housing associations, is the first to analyse a complete year’s data on the impact the under-occupancy policy has had on tenants.  It has revealed that nearly three quarters of people who were affected have been unable to downsize to escape it because of a shortage of smaller homes, and that housing associations are struggling to let larger homes as demand has plummeted.  Download a copy of the report from the Grand Union Housing website.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing- Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 2 April 2014, Official Report, column 724W, on housing benefit: social rented housing, for what reasons his Department has determined that a longer time frame than one year is required to assess the effects of the under-occupancy penalty on rent arrears in the social rented sector. 

Esther McVey: Rent arrears can have multiple causes and levels tend to fluctuate over time. Analysis of monthly, quarterly or even a single year of arrears is insufficient to reliably remove these normal fluctuations, driven by both seasonal and general economic trends, and to determine whether and to what extent the removal of the spare room subsidy has impacted on rent arrears levels.

Plea to Aid Downsizing Amid Empty Rooms Glut

Seven in 10 households in England and Wales have at least one spare bedroom, with eight million homes having two or more, according to analysis from the Office for National Statistics. The figures, drawn from the 2011 census, show significant levels of under-occupancy in the country. Of the 23.4 million households in England and Wales, more than 16 million, or 68 per cent, have at least one spare bedroom. More than 82 per cent of privately owned homes have spare bedrooms, the ONS analysis reveals. Under-occupation is highest in rural parts of the East Midlands – including Rutland, South Northamptonshire and Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire – and Monmouthshire, Wales.  Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Housing Benefits: Changes 'Sees 6% of Tenants Move'

About 6% of social housing tenants in Britain affected by changes to benefits partly designed to cut under-occupancy have moved home, BBC research suggests. The employment minister said 6% - 30,000 people - was "not a failure". BBC analysis of the data from social housing providers also suggested 28% of affected tenants were in rent arrears, a year after the changes came in. But Employment Minister Esther McVey disputed the figures on debt, saying her own feedback from local authorities and the National Housing Federation found an "indiscernible number" of tenants were in arrears. She said 50% of people affected by the change were already in debt. Read more on the BBC website.

Landlords Reject HCA's Smaller Homes Requirement

Housing associations say they won’t bid for grant funding if they are required to build small homes. Scores of English landlords are threatening to reject £1.7 billion of government grant if they are forced to build large numbers of one and two-bedroom homes. The bidding criteria for the 2015/18 affordable homes programme, which covers all of England, apart from London, states that providers should ‘focus’ on providing smaller homes in areas where tenants are under-occupying. Read more on Inside Housing.

Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the under-occupancy penalty will be included in the research he has commissioned into the effect of housing benefit changes; what the terms of reference for this research will be; whether a public consultation will be held as part of this research; and when this research is expected to be published.  

Esther McVey: A consortium has been commissioned to carry out a two year monitoring of the effects of the removal of the spare room subsidy measure. The research will include effects of the measures on supply issues, impacts in rural areas as well as effects on financial circumstances and vulnerable individuals. The evaluation includes research with claimants, social landlords, local authority staff and voluntary organisations. A public consultation is not being undertaken as part of this research. The evaluation is taking place over a two year period, starting from April 2013, with initial findings available in 2014 and a final report published in late 2015.

Nine Year Wait for One-Bed Property

Council tenants are facing a nine-year wait for a one-bedroom property, the YEP can reveal. Stark figures show around 15,000 residents are currently languishing on waiting lists chasing just 35 available one-bedroom properties in Leeds. More than 4,335 tenants are deemed by Leeds City Council to be under-occupying their homes and in need of one-bedroom properties because they could be subject to the Government’s so-called Bedroom Tax. And the council warned tenants could turn to higher priced private sector rentals to avoid the ‘tax’, which would actually drive up the city’s benefits bills.  Read more on the Yorkshire Evening Post website.

96% of Bedroom Tax Victims Have Nowhere to Downsize To

Freedom of Information requests of local authorities by the Labour Party found that 96% of people hit by the government's controversial under-occupancy policy are effectively trapped in their current homes because of a countrywide lack of smaller accommodation.  The 38 local authorities that supplied complete statistics revealed that a combined total of 99,079 families are forecast to be struck by the policy in their boroughs.  However, the councils have only 3,803 one and two-bedroom social homes collectively available for their tenants to downsize into.  Read more on 24dash.

Council Wants Own £2m Bedroom Tax Support Pot

Birmingham Council will write to Eric Pickles to ask for permission to create a £2 million discretionary housing payment fund in its own housing revenue account. The council has already awarded 887 DHP payments to tenants hit by the bedroom tax. This has used up £300,000 of the £716,000 the DWP has suggested the council set aside from its £3.8 million DHP allocation to help tenants affected by the under-occupation penalty.  Although the council is allowed to increase its total DHP funding pot to £9.4 million through its general fund, it says this is difficult due to budget pressures.  Instead, it wants to set up a £2 million DHP pot in the separate HRA, but this requires a direction from the secretary of state for communities and local government. Read more on Inside Housing.

Government Should Raise Bedroom Tax Threshold

The government should concentrate its efforts to tackle under-occupation on households with two spare bedrooms and remove the exemption for pensioners, a housing association chief executive has argued. David Bogle, chief executive of Hightown Praetorian & Churches Housing Association, argues under-occupation is a problem in social housing, but the government is taking the wrong approach to addressing the issue. He suggests the government should look at households that are under-occupying by two or more bedrooms and have been doing so for ‘significant periods of time’. He also says the policy should be applied to young and old equally. Read more on Inside Housing.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what guidance he has issued to local authorities and housing associations about the classification of a bedroom under the under-occupation penalty to housing benefit; and what assessment he has made of the safe minimum size of a bedroom to be shared by two siblings.

Steve Webb: Together with the Department for Communities and Local Government we have worked with the Chartered Institute of Housing who have produced an online guide for social sector landlords "Making it Fit—a guide to preparing for the social size criteria". This was launched in June last year and is designed to help landlords to develop a strategic and operational approach to the size criteria, tailored to their local area. 

Separate guidance has not been issued on the size of rooms or their suitability for use as a bedroom. Rent levels generally reflect the number of bedrooms in the property and may take into account their size, but it is for tenants to decide at the point of accepting the tenancy whether the rooms are of a suitable size for their needs. 

The size criteria rules take account of the number of bedrooms as designated by the landlord and compare this with the composition of the household in order to establish whether or not to apply a reduction due to under-occupation.

Children's Rights Cited In Legal Challenge to 'Bedroom Tax'

Ten disabled and vulnerable children have launched legal proceedings against work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith to fight penalties for the under-occupation of social housing.  Judicial review proceedings have been issued to the High Court on behalf of the children, who claim the new regulations have failed to take proper account of the needs of vulnerable children and are discriminatory. All ten of the children will be expected to share a bedroom with their siblings, but all of them have been assessed as needing their own bedrooms. This is due to their disabilities, or because they are at risk of violence from a sibling, or because of the trauma they have experienced as a result of abuse and domestic violence. Read more on the Guardian website.