Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what future sums he has earmarked for relief of hardship arising from the under-occupancy penalty.

Steve Webb: Additional funding of £35 million has been added this year specifically to support housing benefit claimants affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy in the social sector.  The £35 million funding consists of: £10 million transitional payments that will be distributed to councils; £5 million discretionary housing payment funding for the 21 least densely populated areas in the country to help fragile remote areas; and a further £20 million discretionary housing payment contingency funding.  This is in addition to the £155 million discretionary housing payment funding provided to councils this year. A further £120 million has provisionally been allocated for 2014-15.