To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he plans to allocate additional funding if the planned discretionary housing payments funding is insufficient to prevent evictions as a result of the under-occupancy penalty. [154310]

Steve Webb: There are no current plans to increase discretionary housing payment funding. There are no indications that evictions will result from the removal of the spare room subsidy. The Department has however commissioned a consortium led by Ipsos MORI to undertake an independent monitoring of the introduction of the removal of the spare room subsidy measures introduced last month. The work will include the effects of the measures on the use of discretionary housing payments funding and evictions. Initial findings will be available in 2014 and the final report in late 2015. 

 

Source: Hansard 14 May 2013