Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of local housing allowance compared with the cost of rented accommodation in Bristol.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made of the adequacy of the level of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) compared with the cost of rented accommodation in Bristol.
The proportion of private market rents that are at or below the LHA rate are set out below. This is based on:
| Shared accommodation | 1 bedroom | 2 bedrooms | 3 bedrooms | 4 bedrooms |
Bristol | 8% | 7% | 5% | 7% | 10% |
South West | 12% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 15% |
Note: South West figures calculated as the average for the following Broad Rental Market Areas: Kernow West, North Cornwall & Devon Borders, Plymouth, South Devon, Exeter, North Devon, Mid & East Devon, Mid & West Dorset, Taunton & West Somerset, Yeovil, Weston-S-Mare, Mendip, Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, Cheltenham, West Wiltshire, Swindon, Salisbury and Bournemouth.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of rental accommodation is affordable to those receiving the maximum rate of local housing allowance in (a) Bristol and (b) the South West.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made of the adequacy of the level of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) compared with the cost of rented accommodation in Bristol.
The proportion of private market rents that are at or below the LHA rate are set out below. This is based on:
| Shared accommodation | 1 bedroom | 2 bedrooms | 3 bedrooms | 4 bedrooms |
Bristol | 8% | 7% | 5% | 7% | 10% |
South West | 12% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 15% |
Note: South West figures calculated as the average for the following Broad Rental Market Areas: Kernow West, North Cornwall & Devon Borders, Plymouth, South Devon, Exeter, North Devon, Mid & East Devon, Mid & West Dorset, Taunton & West Somerset, Yeovil, Weston-S-Mare, Mendip, Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, Cheltenham, West Wiltshire, Swindon, Salisbury and Bournemouth.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that Universal Support is available to claimants in advance of the managed migration stage of the roll-out of Universal Credit.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Universal Support has been in place for a number of years. DWP has made funding available to Local Authorities (LAs) to help deliver Universal Support and the Department’s current funding arrangements with LAs will continue until March 2019.
Earlier this month, we announced a new partnership with Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland to deliver a new approach to Universal Support, initially up to March 2020. Our new partnership will ensure that all those who need to make a claim and need extra support can access it.
We are considering with stakeholders and partners what additional support might be needed to assist people through the managed migration process.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish an updated schedule for the next stage of the roll-out of Universal Credit.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The schedule for the migration onto Universal Credit has been published and can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-transition-to-full-service.
Rollout to all Jobcentres will be completed by December 2018.
The next stage of the rollout is managed migration. The regulations to enact managed migration will come before Parliament in the autumn and are subject to parliamentary approval. During 2019 we will test and refine our processes on a small scale to ensure they are working well before we take on larger volumes from 2020 onwards, and complete the process in 2023.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 April 2018 to Question 136602 on Support for Mortgage Interest, how many and what proportion of Support for Mortgage Interest claimants have (a) decided to take out and (b) declined the loan offered by her Department in each English region.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The information requested is not available at regional level and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.