Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will provide longer-term discretionary housing payments to those affected by the extension of the shared accommodation rate who have not found suitable alternative accommodation to help with their housing costs.

The start and end dates of a discretionary housing payment are decided by local authorities on a case by case basis. The Government has allocated extra funding in 2014/15 to give local authorities the confidence to make long-term awards in any cases where they consider this is appropriate.