Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households in the private rented sector are in receipt of the housing element of Universal Credit; of those households, how many have rents which exceed the local housing allowance rate; and what is the median gap between the rent and the local housing allowance broken down by the number of children in the household in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales, for the most recent period for which data is available.

We are unable to provide a breakdown of estimates as providing this information will take us over the resource requirement for this PQ due to data quality issues.

Government spends around £30bn annually on housing support. In addition, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates will be increased from April 2024 to the 30^th percentile of local market rents. This will mean 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit (UC) will gain on average around £800 a year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024-25. This is at a cost of £7bn over five years.

The Secretary of State has committed to review LHA rates annually. That review includes consideration of current rents, as well as the broader fiscal context. LHA rates are not intended to meet all rents in all areas: instead it ensures that claimants in similar circumstances and area are treated the same.

For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and require additional support Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion to local authorities for households who need additional support with their housing costs.