Clause 27
Welfare Reform Bill
2:30 pm
Danny Alexander (Shadow Minister and Disability Spokesperson, Work & Pensions; Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Liberal Democrat)
If I misspoke, I apologise to the Committee. Let me rephrase my remarks. At the point of change, a large number of people might move on to the new benefit and need help, and because the new benefit encourages people to take responsibility for themselves, there will be a perpetual flow of people who need financial advice and help. One of the advantages of local housing allowance has undoubtedly been a reduction in complexity, from the point of view of both claimants and benefit administrators. That was clear when I visited Lewisham to talk to people who had been administering the pilot.
The one area in which complexity has increased is making vulnerability assessments. As the Committee knows, when a vulnerability assessment has been made and somebody is to be treated as vulnerable, their housing benefit can be paid directly to the landlord. That is the only category of people for which that can happen automatically. The process of making vulnerability assessments can be a significant new burden for local authorities, and they have addressed it in different ways, whether the test is subjective or objective. Again, I wonder what guidance the Under-Secretary will issue to local authorities on the manner in which vulnerability assessments should be conducted. Overall, the level of complexity seems to be about the same as it was. The process is less complex for most tenants, but it is more complex for those in the vulnerable category.
I have one further question for the Under-Secretary. In responding to the previous debate, she suggested that there might be a degree of policy change in relation to local housing allowance. She said that the proportion of people subject to a single room rent whose costs would be covered by SRR would rise from 26 per cent. to 50 per cent. Will she explain what policy change has been made since the pathfinder pilots that makes her confident that such an increase will take place?