Universal Credit Demonstration Projects – Parliamentary Written Answer

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have been involved in universal credit pilot schemes to date; how participants in the pilot scheme were selected; what steps his Department took to ensure participants in the scheme were representative of people who will be claiming universal credit; how many have fallen into arrears in any form since being moved on to universal credit; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Hoban: The six areas selected for the Direct Payment Demonstration project volunteered to be part of the project to test direct payment under the current housing benefit regulations and were selected to broadly cover the range of types and circumstances of landlords in Great Britain (GB) meaning they are as representative as you can expect given the limitation that only 2000 tenants from each area are in the project. They cannot represent all social rented sector tenants in GB, although they are broadly comparable with the range of circumstances of tenants in the social rented sector. Figures for the total number of tenants who have fallen into arrears in the Direct Payment Demonstration project are not available. However the number of tenants who reached the arrears trigger point (variable across the areas) requiring reinstatement of their housing benefit payment to their landlord was 316 after the first four months of the project.

Supreme Court Paves Way for ‘Bedroom Tax’ Appeal

The Supreme Court has granted the Government permission to challenge a ruling which held that the housing benefit regulations discriminate against disabled people - a move which could have implications for the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ set to hit social tenants from next April. In a unanimous ruling back in May this year, the Court of Appeal (COA) held that the size criteria in the current housing benefit regulations (currently only applying to claimants living in private rented housing) discriminate against disabled people by not allowing an additional room where the disabled person has a carer or where two children cannot share a room because of disability. Read more on 24dash.