§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his latest estimate is of the annual cost of(a) administering Housing Benefit and (b) Housing Benefit fraud; and if he will make a statement. [156596]
§ Mr. PondThe most recent available estimate of the annual cost of administering Housing Benefit is in the table:
Housing Benefit administration costs in Great Britain 2001–02 £million England 360 Scotland 32 Wales 15 Total 407 Notes: 1. Figures are Net Current Expenditure. 2. Amounts are rounded to the nearest million Source: Figures for England provided by Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Scotland figures provided by the Scottish Executive. Wales figures provided by the Welsh Assembly. For Housing Benefit Fraud, we published "Fraud and Error in Housing Benefit, April 2002 to March 2003" on 11 December 2003. This report represents the first national headline estimates, for the level of fraud and error in Housing Benefit, derived via the statistical analysis of data collected by the Housing Benefit Review (HBR) continuous measurement exercise. Copies of the reports are available in the Library.
§ John MannTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the proposal to give local authorities the ability to withhold payment of housing benefits to tenants as a method of controlling anti-social behaviour. [159457]
§ Mr. PondI refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave the hon. Member for New Forest, West (Mr. Swayne) on 9 February 2004,Official Report, column 1105.
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§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress has been made since the formal consultation about ground rents and the referral of rent to local rent officers under the proposed changes to housing benefit. [157489]
§ Mr. PondThe first step in our reform of Housing Benefit has been the introduction from November 2003 of a flat rate Local Housing Allowance in the private rented sector in nine pathfinder local authorities; with flat rate allowances for same size properties in the same area. Early indications are that the shift away from making payments direct to landlords is going well.
In the pathfinders, Housing Benefit is no longer linked to individual rents, so there is no need for individual rents to be referred to the local rent officer. The local rent service will however continue to support the local authorities by calculating monthly Local Housing Allowance rates and setting the Broad Rental Market Areas.
We have also put a comprehensive evaluation strategy in place. This will include interviews with claimants, landlords, local authority staff and stakeholder organisations, as well as an analysis of administrative data.
§ Mr. GoodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of landlords in pathfinder areas who have stopped taking on housing benefit tenants. [158079]
§ Mr. PondWe are making good progress in applying our ground-breaking Local Housing Allowance to tenants with mainstream tenancies in the private rented sector. All the nine pathfinder local authorities, who are taking this forward for us, have begun to implement the reforms. We have made an encouraging start: implementation has been smooth and early indications are that the shift away from making payments direct to landlords is going well. Initial concerns from landlords have now been addressed to a large extent and we are not aware of any landlords withdrawing from the market.
The reforms are intended to help landlords, as well as tenants, by creating a more transparent system that will be simpler for local authorities to administer, thereby speeding up overall processing times. Also, the safeguards we have built in regarding direct payment to landlords in particular circumstances are designed to protect the interests of both landlord and tenant.
It is too early to fully assess the response of tenants and landlords, but we have put a comprehensive evaluation strategy in place.