Resettlement Support??

Hello, we have a 25-35 year old UC claimant who is currently receiving the HCE based on the shared room rate. He is a former homeless hostel dweller and having spent more than 3 months in various hostels we believe he should be exempt from the shared room rate under para 29 (4) of the UC regs. The jobcentre have refused to change his award and have said that they will not pay based on the 1 room rate because he is not receiving “resettlement support”. Does anyone know what they mean by this? Obviously its the DWP’s decision on whether the support he received in the hostels passes muster for the purposes of sub para (4) (b) but has anyone seen any guidance which DWP staff are following about this? About what constitutes “resettlement support”??

It’s paragraph F3234of the ADM that covers it but it doesn’t give you any help really. I think you will have to MR/appeal it and push them to say on what basis he didn’t get resettlement support. Have they even asked what support he got from the hostel - he doesn’t need to be getting the support now - just while they were in the hostel as the guidance makes clear.

Thanks Daphne. I’d already sent that to them so when they came back saying about resettlement support I thought there must be some further staff guidance. If I find it i’ll post the details.

The point is that the hostel must have been supplying some sort of support/assistance with the re-housing process. That must have been the case at the time in which he was resident in the hostel - it does not need to be the case today (although I have seen DMs get confused about that).

E.g. If you’ve spent 3 months living in some dirt cheap backpackers hostel, that won’t do. If you’ve spent 3 months living in a proper supported housing setup, then you will qualify.

One of the disadvantages of taking housing costs away from local authority staff is that it used to be possible just to name the hostel and staff would generally have enough local knowledge to be able to pick out which would or wouldn’t qualify.

I would ask the hostels Damo, if they helped with a deposit, helped him look for accommodation, helped with him arrange furniture, helped him sort his benefits, had a support worker he engaged with, whether he completed a option star with the hostel… then you have a case. Many hostels are paid to provide resettlement support as part of a legacy SP funded contract, the hostels will be able to confirm this.

Don’t forget that as a specified Public Authority the DWP after Monday will have a duty to refer all those threatened with Homelessness, (within the next 56 days) to the Housing Authority, ...........  You might want to remind them of this Duty…....as non payment will probably result in notice and him losing his home.