Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he made an assessment of the potential merits of removing the under-occupancy penalty during the preparation of the Spring Budget.

No assessment has been made.

The removal of the spare room subsidy (RSRS) policy applies to claims for housing support where the claimant is living in the social rented sector in a property that is considered to have more bedrooms than the household requires.

The policy helps encourage mobility within the social rented sector to make better use of the existing social housing stock and strengthens work-incentives.

There are no plans to abolish this policy and easements are available to support disabled people and carers, the families of disabled children, foster carers, parents who adopt, parents of service personnel and people who have suffered a bereavement. The deduction does not apply to pensioners in receipt of Housing Benefit.

For individuals who may require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) may be available. DHP payments are entirely at the discretion of the local authority and since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion to local authorities.