Welfare Reform, Universal
Credit & Exempt
Accommodation
Michael Patterson & Danny Key:
Support Solutions
February 2013
Key Questions
Why Welfare Reform?
What is Universal Credit?
Key Dates
Exempt Accommodation
Intensive Housing Management
Pensioners
Bedroom Tax
Key Questions
Benefit Cap
Social Fund
Council Tax Benefit
Employment Support Allowance
DLA/PIP
Why Welfare Reform?
Biggest change to welfare in 60 years!
Comes from 2010 White Paper “Welfare
That Works”
Streamline a complex system: replace
many benefits with one
Ease the transition to work & incentivise
work
Save money: £18bn by 2015
Universal Credit
JSA Income related
ESA Income related
Income Support
Working Tax Credits
Child Tax Credits
Housing Benefit
Universal Credit
Pension Credit, Child Benefit, Carer’s Allowance (will remain)
Council Tax Benefit (To be locally administered)
Contributory ESA (Work Related Activity Group & Support Group)
Universal Credit Key dates
APRIL 2013
Testing Period
OCT 2013
New claims from unemployed claimants start
APRIL 2014
New claims from in-work claimants start
Managed migrations start
2017
Managed migration activity completed
Universal Credit Detail
 Intended to be an online managed process
 4 elements:
 Standard allowance (living costs)
 Allowance for children
 Housing component (unless claimant is in Exempt
Accommodation)
 Additional needs component
 Conditionality & sanctions:
 Universal Credit conditional on a “Claimant Commitment”
 http://homeless.org.uk/sites/default/files/HL_WelfareRefor
mActBriefing2_May2012.pdf
Exempt Accommodation & Intensive
Housing Management
 Nonprofit landlord (County Council, Registered
Provider, Voluntary Organisation or Charity)
 Legal interest in accommodation (ownership or
lease), in which….
 ….”care support & supervision is provided”
 Where the service is provided by or on behalf of the
Landlord
 Accommodation-based & tenancy
sustainment/floating support can be Exempt
Accommodation
Exempt Accommodation & Intensive
Housing Management
 What about agency managed schemes: “by or on
behalf of the landlord”?
 Tenants of Exempt Accommodation will have the
housing component of their benefit administered at
local level much as it is now.
 This can be a significant amount of money
 It has helped providers to reduce dependency on
SP
 And subsidise support costs in tenders
Exempt Accommodation & Intensive
Housing Management
 Creating Exempt Accommodation scenarios is a
good idea:
A good way of funding prevention & taking pressure
off statutory services
For tenants: service levels maintained
Providers: income levels maintained
Local Authorities: recover amounts paid through HB
from the DWP as long as the landlord is a Registered
Provider.
We need to get ALL of our ducks in a row!
Exempt Accommodation & Intensive
Housing Management
 What exactly is IHM? (Or “additional housing
management services”)
1.
2.
3.
Ordinary housing management functions, i.e. lettings,
tenancy sign-ups, HB claims more intensively &
frequently provided
Additional housing management functions due to the
nature of the tenant group and the accommodation
Housing Management functions linked to communal
areas and the provision of systems, i.e. testing of door
entry, CCTV and alarms, re-provision of furniture and
equipment etc.
Exempt Accommodation & Intensive
Housing Management
 Housing Corporation defined – ‘A guide to
Supported Housing’
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/docs/guide_to_supported_h
ousing.pdf
 Judge Turnbull Legal Precedent
Bristol CC v AW [2009] UKUT 109 (AAC) –
satisfactory test for determining support is more
than minimal is to ask whether support provided
likely to make a real difference to the claimant’s
ability to live in the property
Exempt Accommodation & Intensive
Housing Management
 Why refer to support when defining IHM?
 Judge Turnbull Legal Precedent continued;
R(H) 6/08, R(H) 4/09 – ‘Support’ involves the landlord
doing more than, or different from, the exercise of its
ordinary property management functions
Chorley BC v IT (HB) [2009] UKUT 107 (AAC) – support
not confined to counselling, advising, encouraging etc.
‘the carrying out of repairs which clearly go beyond
ordinary housing management can amount to support’
 IHM can therefore be sufficient to qualify as exempt
accommodation!
Welfare Reform: Potential Impacts for
Temporary Accommodation
Exempt Accommodation
Additional Demand for above services
Temporary Accommodation
New subsidy rates in 2013 – lower subsidy
to Local Government for people living in
shared accommodation
Benefit Caps – particular issue in London
Increased Demand due to welfare reform
Potentially less accommodation supply,
and/or, shortfall of funding due to lower
subsidy rates payable
Exempt Accommodation
 Sheltered accommodation – exempt or not?
 Agency Managed Supported Housing – exempt
or not?
 Implications if not………..
 Housing Benefit Regulations amendments, i.e.
service charge eligibility – Plan B; incorporate
IHM/AHMS into rent (HCA acknowledges this)
Potential Solutions to Implications
 Re-negotiate lease/management agreements
 Revise occupancy agreements
 Different commissioning arrangements
 Plan B – incorporate IHM/AHMS into rent, over and
above target/social rent
 Relationships with Registered Providers
 HCA registration
Exempt Accommodation & Intensive
Housing Management
Please talk to us!
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_12/e
xempt_accommodation.html
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_12/u
cihm.html
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_11/i
ntensive_housing_management_.html
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/blog/blog.html
“Bedroom Tax”
 The size criteria in the social rented sector will
restrict housing benefit from April 2013 to allow
for one bedroom for each person or couple living
as part of the household, with the following
exceptions:
Children under 16 of the same gender will be
expected to share
Children under 10 expected to share regardless of
gender
“Bedroom Tax”
 Disabled tenant or partner requiring a non-resident
overnight carer will be allowed an extra room.
 Any household deemed to have more bedrooms
than they require, as defined by the criteria, will lose
a proportion of their housing benefit. The level of cut
will be a fixed percentage of the Housing Benefit
eligible rent, initially set at a 14% cut for one extra
bedroom and a 25% cut for two or more extra
bedrooms
 Doesn’t apply to Exempt Accommodation
Benefit Cap
 From April 2013 caps will be introduced on total weekly
benefit entitlement:
 £350 per week for single people without children
 £500 per week for families
 This will affect larger families, those living in high rent
areas and potentially supported/sheltered housing
 People on DLA (soon to be PIP) and people on ESA
(Support) are exempt from the Benefit Cap
 Claimants who have been in employment for 52 weeks
or more when they claim benefit will be exempt from the
cap for up to 39 weeks
Benefit Cap
The following claimants will be exempt from the cap:
 Those entitled to Working Tax Credit
 Disability Living Allowance
 Personal Independence Payment (from April
2013)
 Attendance Allowance
 The support component of ESA
 Constant Attendance Allowance
 Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
 War Widows and War Widowers pension
Direct Payments
 Most working age tenants will no longer have
the option to have the housing component of
their benefit paid direct to their landlord. This is
meant to ease the transition to work.
 The DWP has said it will build in exceptions
where people are “vulnerable”
 6 Pilots operated to test direct payment,
including vulnerable claimants:
www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/welfare-reform/housing-support/social-sector
Payment Exceptions Financial and
Vulnerability Factors
 Tier One factors – Highly likely/probable need
for a PE
Drug/alcohol and/or other addiction problems
e.g. gambling
Learning difficulties including problems with
literacy and/or numeracy
Severe/multiple debt problems
In Temporary and/or Supported
accommodation
Payment Exceptions Financial and
Vulnerability Factors
Homeless
Domestic violence/abuse
Mental Health Condition
Currently in rent arrears/threat of
eviction/repossession
Claimant is young either a 16/17 year old
and/or a Care leaver
Payment Exceptions Financial and
Vulnerability Factors
 Tier Two factors - Less likely/possible need for a
PE
No bank account
Third party deductions in place (e.g. for fines,
utility arrears etc.)
Claimant is a Refugees/asylum seeker
History of rent arrears
Previously homeless and/or in supported
accommodation
Payment Exceptions Financial and
Vulnerability Factors
Other disability (e.g. physical disability, sensory
impairment etc)
Claimant has just left prison
Claimant has just left hospital
Recently bereaved
Language skills (e.g. English not spoken as the
‘first language’).
Ex Service personnel
NEETs - Not in Education, Employment or Training
The Social Fund
 The Welfare Reform Act will abolish Community Care
Grants, Crisis Loans & Budgeting Loans from 1st April
2013
 These will be replaced by non-ring fenced discretionary
local authority support which may not take the form of
cash payments.
 The Social Fund is not closing as the regulated fund will
continue payments for maternity, cold weather/winter
fuel heating and funeral expenses.
 Universal Credit will provide payments on account
instead of Budgeting Loans.
Budgeting Loans
BUDGETING LOANS
BUDGETING ADVANCES
Budgeting Loans can be “topped up” to the Only one Advance at a time. No further
maximum so long as a certain amount has Advances until it is repaid in full.
been repaid.
Repaid over a period of up to 104 weeks,
although often less.
Repaid over a maximum period of 12
months.
Is a Loan paid out of the Discretionary
Social Fund.
Will be an Advance of benefit in Universal
Credit.
Council Tax Benefit
 Historically local authorities have been
topped-up by central government for paying
Council Tax Benefit.
 The Welfare Reform Act localises the
responsibility for Council Tax Benefit with a
10% funding reduction, a fixed funding pot &
protection for pensioners & possibly
“vulnerable” people: this may mean even
less for other people.
Employment Support Allowance
 From May this year the Welfare Reform Act
limited the duration of contribution-based ESA to
12 months for those claimants in the WorkRelated Activity Group (WRAG), although not for
those in the Support Group.
 Weekly amounts are to be:
WRAG: £25.95
Support: £74.50
Disability Living Allowance &
Personal independence Payment
 DLA will be replaced by PIP for new claimants
from April 2013 for working age people
 PIP is comprised of:
 Daily living component
 Mobility component
 There are standard and enhanced rates for both
components
 The amounts payable are unknown & existing
DLA claimants are to be reassessed in order to
transfer to PIP
Disability Living Allowance &
Personal independence Payment
Personal Independence Payment is being introduced in
stages:
• April 2013: Initial pilot testing
• June 2013: Start to take new claims from all claimants in
all parts of the country
• Jan 2014: Full national reassessment likely to begin
• March 2016: All current DLA claimants of working age
will have been contacted about claiming Personal
Independence Payment
Disability Living Allowance &
Personal independence Payment
 Assessment for Personal Independence Payment will involve
health professionals considering the evidence provided by
the claimant and any professional that may support them on a
regular basis.
 Most people will also be asked to a face to face consultation
with this health professional as part of the claim process
 The health professional will provide advice to a benefit
decision maker at the Department for Work and Pensions
 The benefit decision maker will then use all of this
information to decide the claimants entitlement to Personal
Independence Payment
Responding
 Respond to restrictions on traditional revenue
such as Supporting People & Housing Benefit
 Look at NHS budgets to fund prevention on a
payment by results basis. Engage with Clinical
Commissioning Groups!
 Calculate your social return on investment
(SROI)
 Think about how we engage with the new social
investment agenda
Our Contact Details
Fairgate House
205 Kings Road
Birmingham B11 2AA
0121 707 7766/8881
www.supportsolutions.co.uk
info@supportsolutions.co.uk
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