Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the freezing of the rate of local housing allowance on the rate at which housing benefit recipients (a) fall into rent arrears and (b) become homeless.

The effect of the local housing allowance freeze on the rate at which housing benefit recipients fall into arrears and become homeless has not been assessed. There is currently no clear evidence to suggest that the LHA freeze is contributing to increased arrears or homelessness.

The latest statistics show that the number of homelessness acceptances in England has decreased slightly over the past year and the figures are very similar to the homelessness acceptances when the freeze commenced.