Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many households in England are affected by the under-occupancy charge for (1) one extra bedroom, or (2) more than one extra bedroom; and what assessment they have made of the financial impact of these deductions on those households.

For the latest data available, related to September 2022, 286,149 households were subject to the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) for 1 extra bedroom, and 63,759 for 2 or more extra bedrooms. This data is available on Stat-Xplore.

For 2021/22, a total of £434m worth of deductions were made for RSRS in Great Britain. This includes households on Universal Credit and Housing Benefit. No wider assessment has been made.

The RSRS policy applies to claims for housing support - either Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit - where the claimant is living in the social rented sector in a property that is deemed too large for their needs.

The policy helps encourage mobility within the social rented sector to make better use of the existing social housing stock and strengthens work-incentives. An additional bedroom is allowed in certain circumstances such as for disabled people and carers, foster carers, and parents of service personnel. Additionally, those in receipt of pension age housing benefit are exempt.

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP’s) are available for those who need additional support with housing costs. Since 2011 we have provided nearly £1.6 billion in DHP’s to local authorities.