Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his estimate is of the notional average weekly change in benefit which working families currently claiming housing benefit would face as a result of removing the family premium from the calculation of their housing benefit entitlement.

This policy only applies to new claims to Housing Benefit (HB), or those who have a first child while claiming HB. The impact for working families will not be as much as the premium itself because of the income taper, which reduces the impact on average to around £10.63 per week.