Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the number of people who have been affected by the under-occupancy penalty.

Justin Tomlinson

Current numbers of people affected by this measure can be found using the following link to Stat-Xpore:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Following on from the 2012 impact assessment an independent two year evaluation was commissioned that looked at the effects of this policy. The interim report was published last July and the final report is due to be published before the end of the year.

A link to the interim evaluation can be found below:-

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/329948/rr882-evaluation-of-removal-of-the-spare-room-subsidy.pdf

The full report will be published by the end of the year.

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