Welfare Reform Bill

I hope that my right hon. Friend asked the same question when we considered many other aspects of our support system. Someone aged 25 or over who works at least 30 hours a week is entitled to working tax credit. For those aged 25 and over, contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance has a different rate. That also applies to income support. There is, therefore, consistency. I appreciate that it is sometimes difficult for those who are 24 years and 364 days old to understand why they do not qualify when those aged 25 do, but there must be a dividing line. Depending on one’s view of where it should be, one can object to when that age differential occurs. The age limit is consistent for a range of benefits and I believe that the clarity of the rule is important. In many respects, we have moved away from the principles behind a single room rent to practicalities. The hon. Member for South-West Surrey (Mr. Hunt) made that point. Let me be clear: the changes that we are making to the current housing benefit rules will make a difference to the way in which the single room calculations are made and to the number of accommodation units that will be brought within the remit of the new system. In response to the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander), I appreciate that the policy was restrictive when it was first introduced. It meant a shared living room, kitchen and toilet. As my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Pavilion (David Lepper) highlighted, the accommodation in the pathfinder areas meant exclusive use of a bedroom and shared use of a kitchen, bathroom, toilet and living room. The new system that we are introducing is a dramatic improvement and means the exclusive use of a bedroom—obviously—and sharing one or more out of a kitchen, bathroom, toilet and living room. We have therefore replaced, ““and, and, and”” with ““or, or, or””. That is a significant change. When the local housing allowance is rolled out nationally, we shall look to define shared room rate accommodation. I believe that that will mean a significant increase in affordable accommodation because we shall use a different calculation system. It will no longer disadvantage young people because we will use the mid-point—the median. The mathematicians among us will recognise that 50 per cent. of the accommodation will always be available to let at or below the local housing allowance rate.