Secretary of State called on to clarify housing benefit cut for 'under-occupiers'

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing

Hilary Benn MP, Shadow Leader of the House, yesterday demanded that the Work and Pensions Secretary appear before the House of Commons to clarify the impact of Government’s plans to slash housing benefit for tenants deemed to be under-occupying.

The Government has announced plans to reduce housing benefit for working-age tenants it considers are under-occupying social homes.

This, says the Government, will free-up accommodation for households living in overcrowded homes, or enable properties to be offered to other people on the waiting list for social housing.

From 2013, any household deemed to be ‘under-occupying’ their home by one bedroom would lose 13% of their housing benefit while any ‘under-occupying’ by two or more bedrooms would lose 23%.

Hilary Benn said: "Following Lord Freud’s comments this week that spare bedrooms for people in social housing are a luxury, can we have a statement from the Work and Pensions Secretary so that he can confirm that a widow who has lived in the same two-bedroom house all her life now faces having her housing benefit cut, and may therefore be forced to move? If that is the case, where will she be expected to move to? The National Housing Federation says that while 180,000 social tenants in England are “under-occupying” two-bedroom homes, only 68,000 one-bedroom social homes become available for letting each year."

The Leader of the House, Sir George Young MP, responded: "I have announced two days’ debate on welfare reform in which there may be an opportunity to debate those [changes], but there are transitional funds available to help people in situations such as the right hon. Gentleman described who might otherwise be caught by the proposed cap."

MPs will debate the remaining stages of the Welfare Reform Bill on 13 and 15 June.