Under-occupancy Penalty (Wales) Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Work and Pensions
Chris Evans
Main Page: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)Department Debates - View all Chris Evans's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
Under-occupancy Penalty (Wales)
Chris Evans Excerpts(11 years, 3 months ago)
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Jessica Morden
I am here to talk about under-occupancy and housing benefit. I appreciate what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but I want to continue to press my point.
Even if someone is able to move from a community such as Underwood, they will often leave behind family who are able to care for their children while they work. I cannot be alone in often meeting people in my surgery who seek houses near their parents precisely so that they can have help in looking after their children. Those with two children of the same sex under 16 could have to move to a two-bedroom property. In somewhere such as Underwood, the likelihood is that the children would have to move schools, with all the disruption that that would cause.
Chris Evans (Islwyn) (Lab/Co-op)
My hon. Friend is making a powerful point, and I congratulate her on securing this debate. Does she agree that there is an inflexibility in the system? Children of the same sex but far apart in ages might have to share a bedroom. Single parents are also penalised, because they often do not have rooms for their children to stay in.
Jessica Morden
I agree with my hon. Friend and I will come on to make those points. Again, the study by Bron Afon in Torfaen highlights such cases.
Faced with no social housing and the need to stay in a community, it is hardly surprising, but none the less shocking, that one of the findings of a survey of social housing tenants by Bron Afon was that some tenants had concluded that the only possible solution for them was to eat two meals fewer a week to make up the shortfall. They felt that that was the only area on which they could economise.