Housing benefit for assisted accommodation

Hello, My client’s father who is of 80 years old, recently been placed in an accommodation which is known as ‘Assisted living’. Housing benefit refused to pay cl’s father any benefit as uder the HB Act 2008, regulation 9, HB is not payble for, Residatial accommodation. Cleint is arguing that it is not a residential accommodation but an assisted living. Can someone tell me the difference? Thank you.

HB Regs 2006 is what they mean, I think.

HB is not payable for a care home, which means an establishment in which the same person or company provides personal care and accommodation together as a package.

The easiest way to identify whether this scheme is a care home is to look it up on the Care Quality Commission website here: http://www.cqc.org.uk/ (there’s a search form on the home page)

This will tell you:

- whether the establishment is registered at all
- if it is registered, whether it is registered as a care home or as a domiciliary support service.

If it is registered as a care home, it is excluded from HB.  But if it is registered as “care in your home and supported living” or not registered at all, it isn’t a care home.

Only care which is of a close and intimate nature triggers registration with CQC.  When I was working on the Transitional Housing Benefit scheme it used to be the case that where a person lives in a registered care home and gets care which is not of a close and intimate nature (as opposed to support with daily living) that he could get his room de-registered.  However, that was about 10 years ago now and that might not be the case now.  Others will know better than me.

Advice I received from the DWP a couple of years ago.

There is a fine line between a “care home” and “exempt accommodation”.  It is getting finer but it is a line none the less.  You are right in saying that section 3 of the Care Standards Act 2000 doesn’t mention that a home must be registered to be a care home.  However, section 11 does require that, if it is a care home, it is registered as such.

The definition of both a “care home” and “exempt accommodation” requires the provision of accommodation with care, the latter with support and/or supervision as well.  However, the distinction between a “care home” and “exempt accommodation” is effectively tucked away in section 121(9) of the Care Standards Act which dictates that the care provided by a “care home” must assist with bodily functions.  It naturally follows therefore that where the care provided does not assist with bodily functions it can potentially be “exempt accommodation”.  This is their natural fit.

I agree with DWP’s practical suggestion that s11 of the 2000 Act effectively makes the registration status determinative of the question whether an establishment is or is not a care home.  I don’t think it is wise for an HB decision maker to go behind that and start saying “well I think it ought to be registered, so I am refusing HB”.  It’s a specialist area of knowledge that we just don’t have in benefits - leave it to the experts!

Thank you so much for your help, I did check on the website and the establishment is registered as a care home and providing assistance with personal care.
This establishment is a private one and it is nursing home.
However, Subsection (3) excludes NHS hospitals and private hospitals and clinics, including establishments which receive patients liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 (see paragraph 28 above), and gives the appropriate Minister power to make other exceptions in regulations. (Homes which take patients on section 17 leave under the 1983 Act but do not take detained patients will need to be registered as a care home not as a hospital).