Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will extend the period for which housing benefit claimants can be absent from home beyond 52 weeks to ensure that people who have been shielding away from home throughout the covid-19 outbreak who intend to return to their home continue to be eligible for housing benefit.

There are currently no plans to extend the allowable period of temporary absence beyond 52 weeks. This is already an extension to the usual allowable period of 13 weeks.