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Night Shelters
NIGHT SHELTERS
The decision that I lost in the upper tribunal about people in night shelters not being able to claim housing benefit has now been discussed in the House of Lords.
The key parts of the decision say that “a person who is allowed to stay overnight (for a charge) at a night shelter but is not allowed to remain there during the day and so has to leave in the morning taking all his belongings with him, and has no right to stay in any part of the night shelter or indeed right generally to stay there (in the sense that if he turns up late and the shelter is full he will be turned away), is not occupying a dwelling as his home” (paragraph 4)
Occupation of a dwelling as your home is a condition for entitlement to housing benefit.
If you are familiar with night shelters you will know that most of them conform to this model.
So I was surprised when the Secretary of State (in practice the DWP), who took part in the case, argued in their submission that this decision had no further implications for any other cases, but turned on the facts of this particular case. The judge was convinced by this argument. Lord Freud repeated it in the House of Lords But, of course, the decision has considerable implications.
This argument was used to undermine the main thrust of my own submission, which was that there was nothing in the definition of a home which excluded this arrangement and benefit had been paid on accommodation which met these characteristics ever since the benefit system began. I argued that these arrangements were formerly common and that if Parliament had wished to exclude them the regulations would have specifically said this.
With hindsight, I think that the DWP was keen to exclude a type of accommodation which would be very difficult to cater for under universal credit, although the subsequent exclusion of exempt accommodation has done their job for them in a different way.
So what possible solutions are there for providers?
Given that the decision emphasises that the decision only applies to the individual facts of the case it is important to find ways to differentiate what you are providing from what was provided in this case.
One possible solution would be to give residents a weekly licence which specifies that, providing that they behave in an acceptable manner and return each night by a certain time, they have the right to return each night. You would have to be able to deliver on this commitment.
A locker in which they can store their property might help as well.
It would also be helpful if residents had the right to occupy an individual bed or cubicle, but this can be more difficult to organise.
Many local authorities are looking for any excuse to be able to continue housing benefit in this type of accommodation and will jump at the chance to differentiate your place from this case.
Where councils are not so keen, as in Salford, an organised presentation of claimants to the homeless person’s section may be in order. Many councils do not meet their duties to the single homeless and many night shelter residents are likely to be in priority need. But do expect to have to do a lot of advocacy.