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HB or not HB (Specified Except Accommodation)
We have a client who moved into a property where 24 hour care is provided, The property is rented from a private landlord and there were no other options for the client because of their complex needs.
The landlord does not provide the care but it has been set up by a private company. Unfortunately there was nothing in the tenancy agreement that mentioned care is being provided. A claim for HB was made but not awarded. The SW put a very detailed letter explaining why the property was used and why the care is needed.
This may happen more and more as people are moving out of long stay hospitals into the community. Any thoughts on ways around getting specified accommodation status? For this client it would be great but maybe not possible but for future tenancies. Thanks.
HB has been refused the decision: We have looked at the information provided and considered whether this scheme should be regarded as Specified Accommodation (Supported Exempt Accommodation, Managed Properties, Refuges or Local Authority Hostels).
Regulations define Supported Exempt Accommodation as accommodation which is provided by either;
A non-metropolitan County Council
A Housing Association
A Registered Charity
Or A Voluntary Organisation
And where that body, or person acting on their behalf, provides the customer with Care, Support or Supervision. The level of Care, Support or Supervision provided must be above what could reasonably be expected from a landlord.
Additional regulations allow three other categories of supported accommodation to sit alongside Supported Exempt Accommodation. Collectively these four types of Supported Accommodation are called Specified Accommodation. Specified Accommodation is Supported Exempt Accommodation, Managed Properties, Refuges or Local Authority Hostels. Managed Properties are very similar to Supported Exempt Accommodation; however, the Care Support or Supervision does not ultimately need to be the responsibility of the landlord. It must still be linked to the tenancy.
The property does not meet this criteria and is therefore not considered Specified Accommodation by Fenland District.
Thanks.
You’ve got two things to consider:
- whether the rent should be funded by HB or UC
- if HB, the amount the eligible rent
Dealing with the first issue, it will be HB rather than UC if the claimant occupies any category of “specified accommodation”. There are four categories and probably only two are relevant to this discussion. The categories are:
1. Exempt accommodation, where the accommodation is “provided by” a non-profit body or an English non-met county council such as yours, AND the claimant is provided with care, support or supervision by that same non-profit body or non-met council, or by someone acting directly on its behalf
2. What local authorities refer to as “managed” accommodation, which is provided by the same non-profit bodies and non-met councils who provide exempt accommodation and where the claimant receives care, support or supervision from anyone - not necessarily from or on behalf of the accommodation provider. As the Council’s decision says, it is a further condition that the claimant was “admitted” into the accommodation to meet a need for care, support or supervision so there needs to be some kind of link between the accommodation and the care etc. The textbook “managed” accommodation would be supported living with more than one client on the same site.
3. A DV refuge provided by the same bodies as above or by any local authority
4. A local authority hostel with support
Assuming 3. and 4. are not relevant, you’ll see that what the two important categories of specified accommodation share is the requirement that they are “provided by” certain kinds of landlord. That condition cannot be satisfied by an individual natural person, or by a for-profit company. “Provided by” means the landlord under the tenancy/licence: the person/body to whom the property will revert when the claimant moves and who would be the plaintiff in possession proceedings. In particular, NCC does not “provide” accommodation by facilitating an introduction to a private landlord - it would be the private landlord who “provides” the accommodation.
Once it is established that the claimant should be claiming HB rather than UC, we come to the question of how much HB eligible rent is payable. In exempt accommodation only, the claimant is (as the term implies) exempt from automatic rent restrictions:
- the LHA or Local Reference Rent where the landlord is not a registered housing association
- the bedroom tax where the landlord is a registered housing association
- occasionally, the Local Reference Rent when a registered HA tenancy is referred to the Rent Officer because the council considers the rent to be unreasonably high, but this doesn’t happen very often.
But in “managed” accommodation, automatic rent restrictions apply:
- In the case of a registered housing association, this isn’t usually a problem as few supported housing schemes have spare bedrooms and the bedroom tax therefore doesn’t often arise. The only other problem would be those rare cases where a Local Reference Rent is set for a registered HA (not a common occurrence).
- If the landlord is not a registered HA, however, HB will be limited to the LHA or Local Reference Rent (which one depends on the type of building and whether meals are provided).
In conclusion, you want these clients to have a non-profit landlord and you want the landlord itself to be providing at least some care, support or supervision.
Thank you Anorak for the response. The landlord is in it to make a profit and does not provide any of the care. The property was sourced by the care company from a private landlord. The landlord does not provide any care. If am reading it correctly would it have to be a claim for UC to cover any rent and then it would be governed by LHA rates for the area, unfortunately the rent is way above any LHA rate, surprise surprise!
I would think it would be a UC claim to get some of the housing costs covered. Unless there is away around it!
Thank you again for the information.
If it’s a private for-profit landlord, there is no need to consider anything about the care arrangements - it cannot be specified accommodation and the rent would be eligible for a UC housing element at the LHA rate.
Private landlords in this situation sometimes lease the accommodation to a non-profit body, who in turn sublet to the occupier, but:
- The existing tenancy would have to expire or be surrendered before the landlord has any legal standing to lease to someone else
- If the incoming non-profit body is not a registered HA, HB might still be limited to the LHA rate because the landlord has no significant support role with a commissioned care provider providing all or most of the claimant’s care/support. So nothing would have been achieved in that case.
- The local authority might say the new arrangements have been created to take advantage of the HB scheme. The defence to that would be to say it is necessary to cover legitimate reasonable costs, but it might take an appeal
Thank you Anorak that has been really useful to know. I think this will happen more and more as people move out of long term hospital stays.
Thank you Anorak that has been really useful to know. I think this will happen more and more as people move out of long term hospital stays.
Not if social workers pay attention to their welfs it won’t. There would be Meetings about this kind of thing when I worked in ASC.