Opposition Day — Housing Benefit (Under-occupancy Penalty) — 27 Feb 2013 at 18:50

The majority of MPs voted in favour of a housing benefit under-occupancy penalty.

MPs were voting on a motion which called on the Government to abandon its proposed housing benefit under-occupancy penalty. This rejected motion was proposed by Eilidh Whiteford MP (Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party). It stated:

• That this House
• deplores and opposes the Government’s introduction of the housing benefit under-occupancy penalty;
• believes it to be unjust and unworkable;
• notes growing public anger at its introduction;
• believes that the Government is showing a reckless lack of care and attention to the consequences of its introduction for low-income households affected by disability;
• further believes that it will adversely affect, amongst others, families of service personnel, foster families and those struggling with the effects of family breakdown;
• notes that some parts of the UK will be disproportionately hit because of the mismatch between the available social housing stock and the needs of tenants;
• further notes that according to the Department for Work and Pensions’ Equality Impact Assessment, 63 per cent of the 660,000 claimants affected by the under-occupancy penalty or their partners are disabled; believes that the measure unfairly penalises tenants in rural and inner-city areas;
• further believes the under-occupancy penalty will fail to meet its stated objectives; and
• calls on the Government to abandon this policy immediately.

An assessment of the impact of^[1] introducing size criteria for working-age Housing Benefit claimants living in the social rented sector states: "The exchequer and taxpayers benefit as a result of benefit reductions to individuals"; this is balanced by potential higher costs to local authorities, and costs to individual claimants.

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• [1] Impact Assessment of introducing size criteria for working-age Housing Benefit claimants living in the social rented sector

Debate in Parliament | Source |