Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the effect of increases in private rents on expenditure on local housing allowance in 2011-12.
Steve Webb: Outturn information on local housing allowance expenditure for 2011-12 is not available until June 2012. The latest estimate of local housing allowance expenditure for 2011-12 is £7.6 billion. This compares to outturn expenditure of £6.4 billion for 2010-11. The expected increase in expenditure is primarily due to higher numbers of households receiving housing benefit during 2011-12, rather than increases in the level of private rents. Our assumption is that eligible rents for those receiving local housing allowance will fall during 2011-12 following the introduction of the reforms to local housing allowance in April 2011.