Asked by Baroness King of Bow
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many households, broken down by local authority, are currently in receipt of benefits totalling more than £500 per week, but are exempt from the Household Benefit Cap on the basis of their entitlement to Disability Living Allowance.[HL1371]
Lord Freud: A Local Authority breakdown of the number of households currently in receipt of benefits totalling more than £500 per week, but are exempt from the Household Benefit cap on the basis of their entitlement to Disability Living Allowance (DLA), will be placed in the library.
Please note DLA claimants are exempt from the benefit cap. From the data available in May 2013, we estimate an additional 47,000 households would potentially be brought into scope of the benefit cap if this exemption did not apply and by virtue of other benefits being claimed. This estimate references those whose only reason for exemption from the cap is that either the HB claimant, their partner or a dependent child in their household receives DLA. Please note that it includes those in the scope of both the £500 and £350 benefit cap limits.
Asked by Baroness King of Bow
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many claimants in Tower Hamlets they expect to be migrated to universal credit between October 2013 and March 2014.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud): Claims to universal credit start in our Pathfinder from 29 April 2013. Pathfinder will focus on new single unemployed people, with or without rented housing costs, and will replace means-tested jobseeker's allowance for this group of claimants. If these claimants then move into work, they will be eligible to claim universal credit, not working tax credit.
Universal credit will then progressively roll out in a managed way across the country from October 2013. This will ultimately include all claims from people both in and out of work, with everyone, including people in Tower Hamlets, eventually claiming the new benefit by 2017.
Asked by Baroness King of Bow
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for Housing, Mark Prisk, on 18 January 2013 (Official Report, Commons, col. 957W), whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the note from their recent roundtable discussion with representatives of London boroughs with high homelessness numbers.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham): The Government have no plans to introduce a mandatory register of residential letting agents.
Written Questions