Housing Benefit: Young People – Parliamentary Written Answer

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether savings to the public purse over the current Parliament, which his Department estimated will accrue from changes in housing benefit for people under 21 years of age includes the costs of evictions and temporary accommodation potentially resulting from those changes; and whether he has made an assessment of the effect of those changes on young peoples' labour mobility.

Caroline Nokes: It is important to make clear that the changes referred to will only affect claimants on Universal Credit Full service – they will not affect those on Housing Benefit. Since the policy was initially announced, we have worked in collaboration with key housing stakeholders such as Crisis and Shelter to make sure the policy includes the right exemptions to protect the most vulnerable people; we are therefore confident about the robustness of the policy.