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Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2009

My Lords, after the words that we have just heard from all around your Lordships’ House, the Minister cannot be particularly grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas of Winchester, for raising this issue today—even though I note that these regulations are up for debate and that, if he plays his cards well, there is no likelihood of a vote. I shall not, however, go through the Social Security Advisory Committee’s report blow by blow. However, like the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, I accept its comment, noted in paragraph 18, that, ""there is a problem with setting rates for larger properties"," although I cannot see that that necessarily means that these regulations make the system neither transparent nor open. Local housing allowance, which replaced traditional housing benefit, featured in the last Welfare Reform Bill and was supported from these Benches. However, as with so much recent government legislation, the devil was and clearly remains in the detail. The Minister will, doubtless, remember that I wrote to him on behalf of one of my correspondents a few weeks ago, although it was not on an aspect covered by these regulations, which respond to a particular problem: namely, state-aiding the residents of large families. I can tell the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, that it elicited the fact that area reviews are already taking place. The subject of the regulations was, as we have heard, highlighted fairly recently in the press when there were reports of an Afghan family claiming a massive £12,455 per month—met by housing benefit—for a seven-bedroom property in Ealing. The value of the property in question was claimed by the Mail on Sunday to be a massive £1.2 million, as we have heard. Three housing benefit officers supervising the case were apparently sacked, for, as one said, "just doing our job". A spokesman for Ealing Council even said that it was appropriate to put the family in a seven-bedroom property because of the age of the children. If that is correct, why were the officers sacked? How does that make the situation any better? Surely to goodness there are two things wrong with the system. Although I do not know the details of the children’s age and sex, I know that in the private sector, where no housing benefit is paid or claimed, it is not uncommon for children of the same sex to share a bedroom until one or more moves out of the family home. The fact that this is not tolerated in the supported housing sector means that those who get state support are sometimes treated more generously than those who are not—and that is not correct. Secondly, was a £1.2 million house the only one available in the district? I find that difficult to believe; further, there must be a limit that the state should be prepared to subsidise in housing costs. None the less, I agree with the Government that it is a great improvement in the system that claimants should know in advance what the state is prepared to pay in terms of housing benefit. For both those reasons, these Benches support the regulations—even though the local housing allowance and the rules governing it are one of many facets of the DWP that we will be combing through, if and when we get the chance. Ministers seem to love two things: targets and pilots. In this case, targets are not in question but pilots most certainly are. Local housing allowance was extensively piloted before it went live across the whole country. I find it hard to stomach that the pilots were properly evaluated before it went live; that is why we will attempt to change the current Welfare Bill where pilots are involved. However, revenons à nos moutons. Was the size of the dwellings ever raised as a problem during the piloting stage, or are the regulations the result of media pressure, as has been suggested from the Liberal Democrat Benches? No doubt the Minister will deny this, as his fellow Ministers have done, but he must answer the question that was put to him by the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood. Why do we have the regulations so soon after rollout? It is particularly relevant because, in answer to the SSAC report on the order, I note that the Government have responded, in paragraph 29: ""The Impact Assessment used the best available data to estimate the number of customers that may be affected by the change and what the composition of this group may be. The Government has had to rely on survey data rather than more up-to-date and complete administrative data. The Department for Work and Pensions did not begin to receive administrative data returns on Local Housing Allowance until it became available in September 2008, and then for an incomplete set of local authorities. The Department is still in the process of quality assuring this data particularly the fields that relate to Local Housing Allowance and that are new to the dataset. It is likely that the Department’s administrative data on Housing Benefit will be publishable at a national level later in 2009. However, it cannot be guaranteed that completion of all variables would be sufficient to inform a robust impact assessment of this issue. The only option for now is to use survey data to estimate the possible impacts"." In another part of the SSAC consultation response of 8 February, the Government claimed that the problem of high subsidy occurs only in inner London. How do they know? They got an incomplete set of data. How will they know until all the data are in and evaluated? Finally, the 2009 Budget announced that claimants will no longer be able to keep the surplus if their fixed local housing allowance rate is higher than their actual rent. Yet giving incentives to tenants to be more flexible in their choice of accommodation was the whole basis of the local housing allowance: promoting personal responsibility. Does this not now raise broader questions about the viability of the whole scheme, given the concerns about landlords turning away LHA tenants and vulnerable people being unable to cope, which is a subject that I have mentioned more than once in your Lordships’ House? I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, for giving me the opportunity to make these points.