Universal Credit: Pensioners – Parliamentary Written Answer

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how pensioners in receipt of universal credit in mixed-couple households where one partner is over pensionable age and the other is below will be affected by the under-occupation penalty.

Damian Hinds: All mixed aged couples who under-occupy social housing, are subject to the policy to remove the spare room subsidy, if one partner is in receipt of Universal Credit. This is because working age claimants are better placed to meet a rent shortfall through taking up employment or increasing their working hours; and over the long term, this measure helps ensure that people move to more suitably sized accommodation before both members of a couple reach state pension age.