Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of foster carers affected by the social sector under-occupancy penalty.

Steve Webb: We estimate that there are fewer than 5,000 claimants who are foster carers who could potentially be affected by the under occupancy measure.  An additional £5 million has been added to discretionary housing payments specifically to support foster carers affected by this measure.