CCHPR, together with Ipsos MORI, were commissioned by the DWP to evaluate housing benefit changes in the social rented sector. The ‘removal of the spare room subsidy’ involved introducing size criteria for the social rented sector, in April 2013 in order to reduce housing benefit for working age tenants deemed to have spare bedrooms. This was part of a range of welfare reform measures, including the household benefit cap, to reduce expenditure and improve work incentives. Social tenants of working age who under-occupy will lose either 14% or 25% of their eligible housing benefit, depending on whether they have one or two or more spare rooms.