Will the Age Discrimination Act have any effect on the single room rent for under 25's claiming Housing Benefit?

Could be wrong, but I don't think there is an Age Discrimination Act - it's certainly not listed on the OPSI site.

The legislation coming into force shortly that has led to a lot of press coverage is the The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, which are, not surprisingly, about discrimination in employment.

Keith is correct in what he says. The new regulations only address discrimination in employment, not in provision of goods and services.

They're not that great at addressing employment issues!

There is already a more general provision against discrimination on basis of age (Art 14 of HRA linked to another Art of HRA).

This was used in a challenge to the lower rate of JSA for under 25s in Reynolds. The House of Lords had little time for it- holding that it was justified policy to get youngsters living at home rather than out on their own etc.

I cannot see the single room rent going any other way (not sure if it been tried yet).

More generally, it may be possible to argue that Age discrimination is also against EC (As opposed to Human Rights) law in areas outside of employment (this seemed to be what the ECJ say in Mangold- see paras 75 onwards of that judgment).