Baroness Hollis of Heigham (Labour – Former Work and Pensions Minister): Is it not the case that if you cannot find a job your Housing Benefit is cut after 12 months, your rent arrears mount up, you are evicted and you become homeless? Equally, however, if you find a job with an adequate income, you are also likely to lose your home and be encouraged to move into a different form of tenure. So, fail to get a job and you are out; get a job and you are out. Is that decent?
Baroness Hanham (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, CLG): I think it is. When the income of some people who are living in subsidised accommodation rises after taking that accommodation, their change in circumstances needs to be taken into account. We have just discussed housing benefit levels. As far as I can see from the proposals, nobody will be evicted. Everyone will be given an opportunity. Local housing authorities will have the responsibility to ensure that they deal with people decently and respectably.
Lord Skelmersdale (Conservative): Are the Government looking at the knotty subject of succession tenancy in social and local authority subsidised housing?
Baroness Hanham: The answer is yes for future tenancies, and no for existing tenancies and arrangements.
Lord Best (Crossbencher): On housing benefit, am I right in thinking that, following the announcement in the CSR, somebody in their 30s in a one-bedroom flat who loses their job will find that if they need housing benefit they will have to leave that flat, where they might have lived for some time, and find somewhere to share with other people? That is a fairly tall order in many parts of the country. Is that the position we find ourselves in with the raising of the level for housing benefit?
Baroness Hanham: My Lords, I need to write to the noble Lord about that, if I may. His question is quite technical.
Baroness Hanham (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, CLG): I think it is. When the income of some people who are living in subsidised accommodation rises after taking that accommodation, their change in circumstances needs to be taken into account. We have just discussed housing benefit levels. As far as I can see from the proposals, nobody will be evicted. Everyone will be given an opportunity. Local housing authorities will have the responsibility to ensure that they deal with people decently and respectably.
Lord Skelmersdale (Conservative): Are the Government looking at the knotty subject of succession tenancy in social and local authority subsidised housing?
Baroness Hanham: The answer is yes for future tenancies, and no for existing tenancies and arrangements.
Lord Best (Crossbencher): On housing benefit, am I right in thinking that, following the announcement in the CSR, somebody in their 30s in a one-bedroom flat who loses their job will find that if they need housing benefit they will have to leave that flat, where they might have lived for some time, and find somewhere to share with other people? That is a fairly tall order in many parts of the country. Is that the position we find ourselves in with the raising of the level for housing benefit?
Baroness Hanham: My Lords, I need to write to the noble Lord about that, if I may. His question is quite technical.
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