Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons student loans income is taken into account for housing benefit when those loans will be repaid.

Housing Benefit is an income-related benefit and to ignore the availability of a loan would discriminate unfairly against the majority of students who are not entitled to it.

The loan is counted as income because Housing Benefit is not intended to subsidise the financial support available through the educational maintenance system. If the loan were not taken into account, the student would be receiving support that duplicated what was already available via a student loan.