DHP to cover housing costs after moving into temp accommodation

Hi,

Client reported as homeless to borough A and was placed into temporary housing in another borough (borough B). The property is managed by a RSL. Client was told to claim housing costs though UC - DWP refused due to living in temp housing. Client was told to claim HB through borough A, who refused. Client was then told to claim HB through borough B, who are now paying but refuse to backdate. The back and forth caused a long delay and there are now very high rent arrears.

I attempted to claim a DHP to cover the rent arrears that accrued during the back and forth. The application has been turned down because Client was not in receipt of HB or UC housing element at the time. Looking at the DFA regs I can see this:

Regulation 2 of the Discretionary Financial Assistance Regulations 2001 state that:

(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3) and the following regulations, a relevant authority may make payments by way of financial assistance (“discretionary housing payments”) to persons who—

(a)are entitled to housing benefit or a relevant award of universal credit…; and
(b)appear to such an authority to require some further financial assistance (in addition to the benefit to which they are entitled) in order to meet housing costs

Regulation 1(2) explains that “relevant award of universal credit” means an award of universal credit the calculation of which includes an amount under section 11 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, calculated in accordance with Schedule 4 to the Universal Credit Regulations, or would include such an amount but for paragraph 3(h) or (i) of Schedule 1 to those Regulations.

Schedule 1 Paragraph 3(h) of the UC Regulations includes supported housing and hostels for people fleeing domestic violence.

Schedule 1 Paragraph 3(i) of the UC Regulations includes temporary housing.

It seems to me the above regs are saying that a DHP can be paid in this circumstances. Does anyone have any comments or experience with this?

I agree with your analysis.

The government’s intention with this was to cover a scenario where someone moves to specified/temporary accommodation midway through an AP, in which case the UC housing element would not be paid for the entire month, but the HB would only start from when they moved into the specified/temporary accommodation, leaving the claimant with a gap of potentially up to one month.

See paras. 7.25-7.29 here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/65/pdfs/uksiem_20180065_en_001.pdf

However, there is no reason it couldn’t be applied in your case too.

Another interesting question is who should pay the DHP.  Authority B might feel that Authority A has a moral responsibility.

DHPs are administered by “relevant authorities”, defined in s69(7) of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 as “an authority administering housing benefit or council tax benefit” (CTB reference obviously now obsolete).  In general terms, both Authority A and Authority B are “relevant authorities”, but for the period in which the claimant is relying on UC entitlement neither of those authorities is administering HB for him/her personally.

By the way, my answer to that question if pressed would be it is the authority that would be administering HB if the claimant were entitled to HB.  In this case it would be Authority B because the dwelling is situated in their area and it would not be a rent rebate, because charges are not payable to Authority A - see s134 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992.

That raises a whole other issue about out-of-borough placements and HB subsidy, as Ryan knows!