Claiming Housing Benefit subsidy for temp accom

Hi,

I’ve searched the forums but couldn’t see any answers, so if anyone has seen this repeated elsewhere I apologise.

I work for a housing charity in the NW. The local authority ALMO are offering us some accom for us to manage on their behalf and we are looking at issuing licences for a short term period for those who present in an emergency and classing it as temporary accommodation in order to make an assessment and look at move-on accommodation. For a while we’ve looked at claiming the HB subsidy element of the management of temp accom however it is not to clear how that logistically is applied. The questions are:

1) Can a charity in effect acting as a management agent claim the subsidy?
2) Is the subsidy claimed as part of a HB claim or is it seperately created?

Any help on matter much aprpeciated!

The subsidy is payable by the Government to the Local Authority - the LA claims the subsidy once a year for all the HB it has paid out.

I think what you are suggesting is that you would like to strike a deal with the LA in which it would pay over to you the notional management element of the HB subsidy it receives for temp acc.  How this would be set up in practice depends whether the HB would be in the form of a rebate or an allowance.  A rebate applies where the licence agreement is between the service user and the Council, an allowance applies if the service user’s agreement is with anyone else.

Would you be taking the properties on a licence/lease and then sublicensing them to the service users, with your charity being the service users’ immediate landlord?  Or would you be a managing agent for agreements between the Council and the service users?

You need to talk it through with your Local Housing Benefit Office.

You might find the following helpful.

http://www.supportsolutions.co.uk/

The official position is still unclear…...You might want to think about the following, which I understand to be the current position…....

From April 2013 HB subsidy for all temporary accommodation cases will continue to be based on the current arrangements. That is, in most cases, 90 per cent of the appropriate January 2011 LHA rate for the property (not the household size), that the LA places the claimant into; plus £40 (for London authorities) or £60 (for non-London authorities). All the detailed rules are set out in the circular HB/CTB S1/2011 .

Note TA cases are not exempt from Benefit Cap….........So from July you can expect to be collecting the full rent on very large families….....

After that its what happens as UC arrives…..

The govt are still considering how the separate management element will be paid for UC claimants, but their preferred option is to provide additional funding through top-ups to LAs discretionary housing payment (DHP) pots with a mechanism to reflect changes in local caseloads.

All people claiming HB will continue on the current rules until the claim migrates into UC. The migration timetable is still to be confirmed.

There are some experts on this site, who know more about this, but ultimately as its a funding issue you need to talk it through with your Local HB office…..

Thanks very much for the replies. The aim is we manage the properties so clearly looking at HB anorak response would be for us take them on a licence with us being the landlord.

What is clear is subsidy is paid to the LA directly so consequently it’s a discussion with them. Thanks for the repsonses and info, any more help greatly appreciated.

The area of the HB scheme you are looking at can be rather complicated, I think some further info would be helpful:

- will referrals to the service be made by the Council?
- will the service users be people whom the Council has a duty to accommodate under the Housing Act 1996 (people in “priority need”)?
- what will be the typical personal characteristics of a service user? (Age, gender, family situation, health and support needs)
- will the charity be providing the service users with support?
- will the service users be provided with meals?

There are several different outcomes depending on the answers to these questions and depending also whether it is the Council or the charity who is the service user’s landlord under the licence.  The charity taking the accommodation on a lease/licence and then subletting/licensing to the service users is not necessarily the best option.  You could end up with HB in the form of conventional private sector LHA and no-one getting any extra money from anyone.