Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will keep short-term supported housing within the welfare system to allow women to pay for placements in domestic violence refuges using housing benefit.

The new short-term supported housing funding model, which is currently out for consultation, removes rental liability from Housing Benefit and Universal Credit claimants living in short term accommodation from 2020. Instead rent and eligible service charges will be directly funded by local authorities, through a ring-fenced grant. The current mechanism for funding support costs via local authorities will continue as now.

This will help vulnerable people at a difficult point in their lives, including those living in domestic violence refuges, by removing rental liability.

The consultation document was published on 31^st October alongside the policy statement and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-for-supported-housing.

The consultation is open until the 23 January 2018.