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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

Bedroom tax and UC

chris smith
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HB Help, Sussex

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Have I missed something entirely, or have all the types of social housing that are exempt from the bedroom tax been missed out of the draft UC regs. And also the 9 month exemption for people who have been working seems to have been missed out.

Jon Blackwell
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Programmer - Lisson Grove Benefits Program, Brighton

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Re 9 month exeption for benefits cap - that’s reg 73.

Re exemptions from bedroom tax - I think you’re right - it looks as if only the shared-ownership exemption has been carried across (so far.)

benefitsadviser
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Sunderland West Advice Project

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I dont know if im the only one with this view on this website but I am not interested in Universal Credit one iota until its presented in its almost finished form. They keep changing, omitting, adding and generally buggering about with it, and its a million miles away by the look of it from being anywhere near the finished article. Difficult thing though will be getting places on CPAG training courses once its ratified. I think I may get meself a job as a lollipop man. Much less stressful!

chris smith
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HB Help, Sussex

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Can you point me in the direction of the shared ownership exemption?

Jon Blackwell
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Programmer - Lisson Grove Benefits Program, Brighton

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chris smith - 12 July 2012 01:49 PM

Can you point me in the direction of the shared ownership exemption?

Reg 37(5)

I agree with benefitsadviser, though. There are plenty of gaps/problems in the draft regs so I wouldn’t necessarily set too much store by them.

Damian
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Sorry to be a fuusy beggar Jon - I think you mean paragraph 37 sub para (5) of schedule 4. I know most people will hae worked out that that was what you meant, just thought it was worth clarifying it for the slower people like me.

Nicky
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benefitsadviser - 12 July 2012 01:38 PM

I dont know if im the only one with this view on this website but I am not interested in Universal Credit one iota until its presented in its almost finished form. They keep changing, omitting, adding and generally buggering about with it, and its a million miles away by the look of it from being anywhere near the finished article. Difficult thing though will be getting places on CPAG training courses once its ratified. I think I may get meself a job as a lollipop man. Much less stressful!

Agreed. I have booked on a CPAG course in January in the hope that something may be more concrete by then.

Jon Blackwell
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Programmer - Lisson Grove Benefits Program, Brighton

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Damian - 13 July 2012 10:11 AM

Sorry to be a fuusy beggar Jon - I think you mean paragraph 37 sub para (5) of schedule 4. I know most people will hae worked out that that was what you meant, just thought it was worth clarifying it for the slower people like me.

Argh! Thanks for pointing that out - sorry for any additional confusion caused.

elaineforrest
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Benefits specialist - Dumfries & Galloway Citizens Advice

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Nicky - 13 July 2012 10:59 AM
benefitsadviser - 12 July 2012 01:38 PM

I dont know if im the only one with this view on this website but I am not interested in Universal Credit one iota until its presented in its almost finished form. They keep changing, omitting, adding and generally buggering about with it, and its a million miles away by the look of it from being anywhere near the finished article. Difficult thing though will be getting places on CPAG training courses once its ratified. I think I may get meself a job as a lollipop man. Much less stressful!

Agreed. I have booked on a CPAG course in January in the hope that something may be more concrete by then.

Couldn’t agree more with you. I used to be worried I was not keeping up with UC developments. My view is that there is no point in getting too involved with the details yet until we have the final finished product. I’d rather learn and digest the end product, and not have to keep up with the moving goalposts.

chris smith
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I think that one of the advantages of trying to keep in touch is that you may be able to influence policy.

I’ve been press releasing and encouraging organisations to complain about some of the worst bits because I think the DWP is adopting a strategy of “Lets see what we can propose and have no one complaining about”  If people complain it encourages them to change,but if they do not then they keep it.

Gareth Morgan
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I agree with Chris.  Pointing out the flaws before they come into force is a lot better than waiting until they affect people.  They do listen as well; I’ve got a conference call next week, at their request, to discuss one issue.

The other reason for understanding the proposals earlier is that there are people making decisions and taking actions now that will affect their long term situation.  Advising, or targetting, those people and groups may put them in a much better long term situation.

Ariadne
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How many of the complainants have responded to the SSAC consultation on the regulations???

Rehousing Advice.
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Homeless Unit - Southampton City Council

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I admire everones efforts.

But….

You cant make a duck out of duck feathers.

It simple wont function as a duck.

Peter Turville
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Ariadne - 15 August 2012 05:48 PM

How many of the complainants have responded to the SSAC consultation on the regulations???

Like many organisations we would like to respond to SSAC (and other) consultations but simply don’t have the staff time / funding available. Do the SSAC take this into account when considering the structure of the consultation process? Perhaps a one day workshop or similar might afford ‘front line’ agencies the oportunity to respond?

I can’t help thinking that one of the problems of successive welfare reforms is the top down nature of the process and the difficulty of those with valuable front line experience (inc. DWP staff etc) being able to feed into the process because of funding & time restraints.

Paul Treloar
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Peter Turville - 16 August 2012 12:54 PM
Ariadne - 15 August 2012 05:48 PM

How many of the complainants have responded to the SSAC consultation on the regulations???

Like many organisations we would like to respond to SSAC (and other) consultations but simply don’t have the staff time / funding available. Do the SSAC take this into account when considering the structure of the consultation process? Perhaps a one day workshop or similar might afford ‘front line’ agencies the oportunity to respond?

I can’t help thinking that one of the problems of successive welfare reforms is the top down nature of the process and the difficulty of those with valuable front line experience (inc. DWP staff etc) being able to feed into the process because of funding & time restraints.

Why don’t you write to suggest this to SSAC Peter? I’ve not worked with them for a while so I’m not sure who services the committee, but contact details are here

Peter Turville
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Paul - done!

FIT Advisor
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Yes, the regs are only draft but they give you a real insight to how UC will work and you can compare what is being transported over from current HB system and what’s lost.  Essential impact work can be carried out and staff can become really aware of what the future for benefits will look like. As far as representation is concerned, we considered the impact on our DV provision and made we feel very pertinent points to SSAC.  Could have done more, but we know that there are dedicated people and organisations much more experienced that will do this, but happy that we can apply the draft regs and show just how they will impact on real people. 

And for those who go on training courses when they are offered or have to devise in house training themselves, and to get to grips with how the world of welfare will look from Oct 2013 (not that far away) I feel they need to be evaluating now in preparation.

If there are any changes they will be small and yes, maybe some delays, but basically looks like we will get what is planned.

[ Edited: 28 Aug 2012 at 09:25 am by FIT Advisor ]