Oliver Dowden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Dowden on 2016-06-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discretion his Department has to waive rules on non-payment of housing benefit to people with savings over a prescribed amount for (a) looked after adults, (b) vulnerable adults and (c) adults with disabilities.

Justin Tomlinson

The capital limit of £16,000 applies to all Housing Benefit claimants, other than those on the guarantee element of Pension Credit.

While it is important to encourage saving, it has been the consistent policy of successive governments that substantial amounts of capital should not be ignored altogether when deciding entitlement to benefits which are based on need.