Housing Benefits

Mr. Love

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of housing benefit claimants with non-dependant deductions who are (i) elderly and (ii) disabled. (85607)

The most recent available information is in the following table:

*Housing benefit households with non-dependant deductions by client type: Great Britain: May 2004*
	Number	Proportion of client type (Percentage)
Aged 60+ and disabled	¹—	¹—
Aged 60+ and not disabled	59,000	3.8
Aged under 60 and disabled	27,000	3.1
¹ Denotes nil or negligible. Notes:1. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand. 2. Figures are based on a 1 per cent. sample and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. 3. HB figures exclude any extended payment cases. 4. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 5 “disabled” means one of the disability premiums has been awarded. Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System, Annual 1 per cent. sample, taken in May 2004.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what research he has commissioned to establish whether changes have occurred in the level of the shared room rate available to under 25 year olds in the local housing allowance Pathfinder areas. (85608)

The Department has commissioned a comprehensive and independent evaluation of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Pathfinders that will include consideration of any changes in the LHA rates in the Pathfinder areas over the two year Pathfinder period. This includes an assessment of the LHA shared room rate.

Four interim evaluation reports have already been published and copies are available in the Library. The final evaluation reports are expected to be published between the autumn of this year and spring of next year.

Volume 449: debated on Wednesday 19 July 2006