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Spending Review and Autumn Statement and bedroom tax
Can’t get my head round how capping HB at LHA level will effect social housing tenants? Will the bedroom tax be applied first and then if that amount is higher than the LHA level it will be further reduced?
taken straight from gov.uk
Between 1999-00 and 2010-11, spending on Housing Benefit increased by 46% in real terms, reaching £21.4 billion. 46 The government has already announced significant changes to Housing Benefit at Summer Budget. This Spending Review and Autumn Statement takes further steps to ensure fairness between those receiving Housing Benefit and those paying for the system. The government will:
•cap the amount of rent that Housing Benefit will cover in the social sector to the relevant Local Housing Allowance, which is the rate paid to private renters on Housing Benefit. This will include the Shared Accommodation Rate for single claimants under 35 who do not have dependent children. This reform will mean that Housing Benefit will no longer fully subsidise families to live in social houses that many working families cannot afford, and will better align the rules in the private and social rented sectors. It will also ensure that Housing Benefit costs are better controlled and will help prevent social landlords from charging inflated rent for their properties. This will apply to tenancies signed after 1 April 2016, with Housing Benefit entitlement changing from 1 April 2018 onwards
•limit Housing Benefit and Pension Credit payments to 4 weeks for claimants who are outside Great Britain, from April 2016. At present, Housing Benefit recipients can go abroad for up to 13 weeks while continuing to receive Housing Benefit. The benefit system should not subsidise those on benefits to go abroad for extended periods: this reform will ensure the benefit system is not paying the rent of people who go abroad for more than 4 weeks at a time
Additional Discretionary Housing Payment funding will be made available to local authorities to protect the most vulnerable including those in supported accommodation.
So anyone single and under 35 will not receive any more in HB than the LHA rate for shared accommodation; my interpretation of this is that the bedroom tax would be applied in the first instance then if the eligible rent costs are more than current LHA rates then the HB would be capped at that rate regardless.
However - other than the under 35’s I can’t really envisage who this would affect when there’s already the benefit cap in place; unless this is an overall attack to get around the exceptions for people who are in receipt of disability benefits or are in work and therefore not caught out by the cap.
My view is that it is in effect restricting social housing to those above 35; for single people anyway. The SRR is roughly between £30 to £55 depending on the area and that would be the maximum HB payable for a single person below 35 (with some exceptions) living in social housing. Applying a further deduction of 14% is possible I suppose if there was a second bedroom but this only applies to new tenancies after April 2016 and I would not thought there would be that many new tenancies granted by landlords to those affected by the SRR?
Its a fair point hbinfo…
But its not that simple. People apply for social housing on Housing LIsts, pursuant to Housing Act 1996 (part vi). Councils cannot unilaterally simply refuse to offer accommodation, to folks who have been legally waited and bidding for accommodation. In fact many council rents are near the shared room rates. Contra orthodoxy many applicants for social housing do in fact work and can afford rents without HB.
Still trying to work this out…
I have a horrible feeling that in some areas, in order to build houses, many of these new “Affordable Rents” (sic) run by housing associations are in fact over the LHA rates, so this is potentially going to have a big impact on families not just the U 35s .
I suspect that some of these Housing Associations will start to refuse non working families from April 16. (?)
Potentially this is a big problem ??
Wooah
It covers supported Housing/Hostels as well !!
Justin Tomlinson confirms the worse:
The Discretionary Housing Payment scheme will be available for those living in accommodation that has been purpose built or significantly adapted to meet the needs of a disabled person, in the same way as it is for those who receive a reduction in their eligible rent for the removal of the spare room subsidy.
from a written question on tuesday - http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/news/item/discretionary-housing-payment-scheme-will-be-available-to-disabled-people-h
It is a massive change for vulnerable homeless people as Homeless Link say….
“As Universal Credit rolls-out Lord Freud has expressed a desire to find a “localised” solution to the funding of supported housing so this announcement needs to be seen in that context. Ministers are still working out the best approach to the funding of rents in supported housing in the context of Housing Benefit being phased-out. This is also tied to the review of the rental costs in supported housing which has been commissioned by Government and is due to report in 2016. Obviously, there are numerous concerns which will follow from this change and we will be raising these in discussions with Government. Especially whether DHP can realistically be seen as a way of exempting supported housing. “
The last sentence sums it up
Will this effect older people in supported housing or will people over pension credit age be exempt?
I don’t know. This is going to apply to any tenancy after 2016, so most pensioners (already accommodated) will be unaffected. Normally pensioner accommodation in higher demand areas these days is 1 bedroom or studio flats so will be allocated according to size, and probably OK. So far pensioners are exempt from Bedroom tax…....
.
Still you have a point…...what happens if say, its new build and ends up over lha level ?
I will rely on HB anorak.
Can anybody shed some light on whether this is likely to be affected by a change in tenancy type. For example, if you have tenants who currently have 12 month introductory tenancies, and then after April 2016 they move to an assured tenancy, does this constitute ‘signing a new tenancy’?
This is something I am being asked by our exec team because it could mean that there are more people affected than we are initially anticipating.
Joe Speye has written a long piece on this proposal.
Tories kill sheltered housing & landlords don’t even notice!
Some slightly encouraging news on Supported Housing policy being designed but now DWP include renewed tenancies!
Jess Phillips MP (Birmingham, Yardley) Asked on: 04 January 2016:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will exempt (a) domestic violence refuges and (b) other supported accommodation where higher rates of housing benefit are paid from planned changes to the housing benefit cap.
Answered by: Justin Tomlinson on: 11 January 2016
The introduction of Local Housing Allowance limits to social sector tenants in receipt of Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit will only apply from April 2018 where new tenancies have been taken out or renewed after April 2016.
The Department is working on the exact policy design details for tenants in supported accommodation which includes domestic violence refuges