Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the removal of a tenant's right to choose whether to have a payment of the housing element of the universal credit paid directly to their landlord on (a) private sector and (b) social sector landlords.

The independent evaluation of the Universal Credit (UC) Direct Payment Demonstration Projects report showed that asking claimants to take responsibility for paying their rent did not lead to big increases in rent arrears. We are drawing on the findings from these Projects as part of our approach to continually improving the service. The reports can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/direct-payment-demonstration-projects-final-reports