Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

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.

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

Discretionary Housing Payments are available to those in receipt of the housing element of Universal Credit if they are unable to mitigate the impact of housing welfare reform. Since 2011 the Government has provided around £900 million to local authorities to help support vulnerable people affected by such reforms.