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bedroom tax & exempt accommodation
from inside housing -
‘Lord David Freud may be forced to row back on his pledge to protect vulnerable people from welfare reforms because of political opposition to letting more people avoid paying the bedroom tax.
Under current rules, some supported housing - known as exempt accommodation - is protected from the bedroom tax, benefit cap and universal credit. However, accommodation is not exempt if the landlord is not the provider of care or when a landlord is a council.
The welfare reform minister said last April that officials at the Department for Work and Pensions were working to ensure supported accommodation not meeting the current ‘exempt’ definition would be protected from the ‘unintended consequences’ of welfare reform.
... But the DWP has now admitted there may be no way to exempt all supported accommodation from welfare reforms.’
National Housing Federation have tweeted ..
‘DWP confirm Housing Benefit and #universalcredit regulations will change to give a broader definition of supported ‘exempt accommodation’.’
inside housing is reporting ‘New hopes for exempt accommodation’
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/care/new-hopes-for-exempt-accommodation/7002237.article
With the notable exception of HB anorak, I dont think anybody has managed to understand “exempt” accommodation since 1996, when it was introduced.
I cant see the powers that be, working it out in the next two monthes.
Fingers crossed…..
latest from NHF -
‘The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has put proposals to the independent Social Security Advisory Committee and the local authority associations that would exclude benefit paid to cover housing costs in most supported housing from being:
- Taken into account for the household benefit cap
- Met via the Universal Credit rent element (which means calendar monthly payment in arrears, typically direct to the tenant’s bank account).The DWP’s proposals would create four categories of accommodation that would be excluded:
- Accommodation that meets the current “exempt accommodation” definition in Housing Benefit
- A new, wider category of supported accommodation where the care, support or supervision does not have to be provided by the claimant’s landlord (the same groups of housing providers as for “exempt accommodation”).
- Women’s refuges, including refuges of the same groups as for “exempt accommodation”, but also where the landlord is a local housing authority
- Housing authority hostels where the tenant receives care support or supervision.
note the silence on the current protection against under occupation!