Single room rent for under 35’s

Could you point me to that document please?

p44 of the budget doc sets out measures announced in spending review 2010 with dates for implementation, and shared room rent extension is para b -

here’s link to Budget 2011 -
http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/2011budget_complete.pdf

have added to the wiki @

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/wiki/housing-benefit-reform/

The question is does this count as a change as far as the 9 month protection from the 30% percentile is concerned?

Will we have a group of under 35’s (who are over 24) getting the 1 room rate who will suddenly get a lot less benefit from Jan? (In Brighton this is about £70pw)

I share your concern Robert.

This could have a big impact. Let us not forget that if families become homeless from say the 30 % centile changes, they still have the fallback of the Homelessness Act 1996/Homelessnes Act 2002 as a safety net. (Ok thats not great but its something) Single people will in the main not be in priority need. Many coomunnities are now quite hostile to further developments of HMOs. Supporting people budgets are being cut back.  Housing lists for 1 beds are long in many areas. This will be made worse by restrictions on social rents to accommodation that only the tenant uses. 

Other groups have a stronger lobbies. The relatively fit single person, is expected to get by, or find a hostel…..

All in all could be pretty tough for young (u 35)  single homless in next few years.

New HB/CTB Circular A6/2011 confirms that date of change brought forward to Jan 2011 and that -

‘In practice, this means that
•  single claimants under age 35 making new claims to HB on or after
1 January 2012 will be entitled to the shared accommodation rate rather than the one-bedroom self-contained rate
•  existing claimants at that date who are receiving transitional protection from the April 2011 LHA changes will move to the shared accommodation rate at the same time as their transitional protection ceases
•  existing claimants not receiving transitional protection, i.e. those whose claims are made on or after 1 April 2011 but before 1 January 2012, will move to the shared accommodation rate on the anniversary date of their claim
•  pre-LHA cases will move to the shared accommodation rate (previously known as the single room rent) on the annual review of their case’

attached below. 

rightsnet news story to follow

You gotta like the official explanation for bringing it forward. It’s to stop people having to move twice.

A6/2011 is not clear on 25 to 34 year olds whose LHA anniversary date is between Jan and March.

Do they still get the 9 months protection?

:edit:
having just re-read A6 I think the intent was that for those who will get transitional protection will only see the change in room rate from the date their protection ends.

However the wording of A6 does not state this, it states:
“existing claimants at that date who are receiving transitional protection from the April 2011 LHA changes will move to the shared accommodation rate at the same time as their transitional protection ceases”

If you have a LHA anniversary date in Jan, Feb, or March you are not receiving transitional protection at the date your LHA rate changes to SAR.

If someone were to break their claim for a week and submit a new claim before 26/12/11 they would get another 12 months on the existing one-bed rate rather than SRR. Has anyone considered publicity in their areas and/or know what the attitude of their HB departments would be to this course of action? If people misunderstood the message it could lead to the wrong people taking the wrong course of action so the best approach would seem to be publicising the change and urging anyone affected to get advice. Is anyone doing anything else in their areas? And any pitfalls you can think of?

Some authorities are promoting the idea, others are quiet…

There may be other protection to consider particularly with non Local Housing Allowance cases.

Agreed, which is why the focus would have to be on urging anyone affected to get individual advice before doing anything. Those due to be reviewed in January stand to lose significant amounts and in some of the area we work in would recoup the loss of one week’s benefit in less than 3 weeks.

Hello,

It has been brought to our attention that a number of councils are stating that if someone receives MRC or HRC DLA and fall into the under 35 age bracket they won’t have to get the shared room rate of LHA and instead can get the one bedroom rate.

(http://www.ipswich.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=71&pageNumber=3

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500180/housing_benefit/5005/rule_changes_for_housing_benefit_and_council_tax_benefit_from_april_2011/2 )

We have been searching through the regs and SIs and HB circulars but just can’t seem to find this anywhere.

Obviously if this is the case then it will benefit a great number of our clients.

Has anyone else heard this or seen where it has come from?

Thanks

Sarah

I think this exemption already applies but is not just about receipt of DLA care but whether you qualify for the Severe Disability Premium. Many single people will but they won’t if someone gets Carer’s Allowance for looking after them.

There are 2 new exemptions though, former residents of specialist homeless hostels and ex-offenders who pose a risk to the public. HB Circular A12/2011 gives more detail.

Thanks for the feedback.

When you say it already applies- can you point me in the direction of the actual legislation? We just can’t find it anywhere.

Thanks

Sarah