§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what assessment he has made of the impact of housing benefit regulation 5 on the receipt of housing benefit for a period of notice required by a landlord of a hospitalised claimant who is too unwell to return to their normal dwelling; and if he will make a statement; [57148]
(2) if housing benefit regulation 5 requires the benefits service of a local authority to treat a hospitalised claimant as no longer occupying their normal home and ineligible for benefit if the local social services believe that the claimant is not well enough to return to their normal dwelling. [57149]
§ Malcolm WicksThe housing benefit scheme is designed to help people on low incomes meet the costs of the accommodation which they rent and occupy as their normal home. We recognise that there are circumstances in which people will reasonably be absent from their normal home for temporary periods and it is right that benefit should remain in payment in these cases.
People in hospital can continue to receive housing benefit in respect of their normal home for up to 52 weeks, or until the local authority decides that their absence is likely to be substantially more than 52 weeks or become permanent. At this point housing benefit is withdrawn. In reaching a decision on the likely length of a person's absence from their normal home, the local authority takes account of all available evidence including, where appropriate, the views of the local social services.