Database: Households on Universal Credit
Field: Number of spare bedrooms
Description
When claimants receive a housing element as part of their Universal Credit entitlement, there may be a reduction to their standard entitlement due to the 'removal of the spare room subsidy' (RSRS). The value of UC Housing element claimants receive is based on the number of people in the household and the size of their accommodation. This applies to all working-age tenants renting from a Local Authority, housing association or other registered social landlord. It does not apply to the private rented sector.
A household subject to a reduction as part of the removal of the spare room subsidy will receive either a 1 spare room reduction (and will lose 14% of their eligible rent), or a 2 or more spare room reduction (with a 25% reduction of their eligible rent).
Data on the mean reduction amounts for RSRS can be accessed via the 'Measures' field and selecting the 'Mean' box under 'RSRS Reduction'. This will replace the default 'Counts' measure. More information about mean RSRS reductions is available in the Measures section of the information on this Dataset.
Classification
Applicable to: All Households
The Number of spare bedrooms can take the following values:
Total number of categories: 4
This data is not available prior to April 2019.
Quality Statement
The "Not applicable" classification is assigned to all households outside of the social rented sector where a RSRS reduction is not applicable. "Not available" is also assigned to a minor number of cases where the information is uknown.
The elements of Universal Credit associated with a claim have been identified based on the current circumstances of the household according to the latest records held by the department.