§ Earl Russellasked Her Majesty's Government:
What would be the cost of abolishing the single room rent restriction on housing benefit for those 113WA under 25 (a) as a gross cost and (b) as a net cost; and how they calculate the difference between the two. [HL401]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Baroness Hollis of Heigham)We are unable to estimate with any accuracy the cost of abolishing the single room rent restriction. There is insufficient quantitative information on how this group responded to the change and without this information we cannot estimate the behavioural effects of reversing the change.