Opposition Day — Housing Benefit — Deductions for those deemed to have excess bedrooms — 12 Nov 2013 at 18:51

The majority of MPs voted in favour of reducing housing benefit for those deemed to have excess bedrooms and rejected a motion moved by Rachel Reeves MP (Leeds West, Labour)^[1] which read:

• That this House
• regrets the pernicious effect on vulnerable and in many cases disabled people of deductions being made from housing benefit paid to working age tenants in the social housing sector deemed to have an excess number of bedrooms in their homes;
• calls on the Government to end these deductions with immediate effect;
• furthermore calls for any cost of ending them to be covered by reversing tax cuts which will benefit the wealthiest and promote avoidance, and addressing the tax loss from disguised employment in construction; and:
• further calls on the Government to use the funding set aside for discretionary housing payments to deal with under-occupation by funding local authorities so that they are better able to help people with the cost of moving to suitable accommodation.

An assessment of the impact of introducing size criteria for working-age Housing Benefit claimants living in the social rented sector^[2] states: "The exchequer and taxpayers benefit as a result of benefit reductions to individuals" but concludes this is balanced by potential higher costs to local authorities, and costs to individual claimants.

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• [1] Rachel Reeves MP (Leeds West, Labour), House of Commons, 12 November 2013
• [2] Impact Assessment of introducing size criteria for working-age Housing Benefit claimants living in the social rented sector

Debate in Parliament | Source |