Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of social housing tenants whose Universal Credit payments cover all of their rent costs.

As of August 2022, 87.5% of social housing tenants in receipt of the Universal Credit Housing Element, had their rent fully covered by their total Universal Credit payment.

Total Universal Credit payments comprise of the Standard Allowance, as well as other elements such as the child, disability, and housing elements. The sum of these elements can be reduced for the final payment for instance, if a household is in receipt of earnings, has beyond a certain level of savings or is subject to the benefit cap or the removal of the spare room subsidy (RSRS). As Universal Credit is administered as one payment, we cannot specifically state the proportion of rent covered by the housing element part of a payment as the majority of reductions are not applied to specific elements.