Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many old-age pensioners in Ashfield constituency who live in social housing properties containing two or more bedrooms and who receive housing benefit will be affected by plans to limit housing benefit to the level of the local housing allowance.
The information requested is not available.
For general needs accommodation in the social rented sector, the appropriate Local Housing Allowance rate will not come into effect in the social rented sector until April 2018; and then only where a new tenancy has been taken out or an existing tenancy has been renewed on or after 1 April 2016.
In the previous Parliament, we significantly increased funding for Discretionary Housing Payments to £470 million and we have already committed a further £870 million in the overall Discretionary Housing Payment funding over the next five years.
Full impact and equality assessments will be undertaken in due course.