Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the 12-month grace period to protect individuals from a reduction in housing benefit when someone who lived with them passes away is being implemented effectively.

A grace period exists in Housing Benefit to help protect those suffering a bereavement for a period of 12 months. This applies not only in respect of the claimant or their partner but to people linked to them, such as a family member who lives in the same household. This means that housing benefit entitlement is protected from any consequential decrease in their eligible rent for a year from the date of a death.

It is however the responsibility of individual local authorities to assess individual benefit claims and apply the specific rules which is laid out in regulations and guidance.