Supported accommodation exempt from the Benefit Cap??

There isn’t a completely straight answer, but I’ll try to make it as straight as possible!

As it stands, exemption from both bedroom tax and benefit cap relies on the term “exempt accommodation” as defined for the purpose of making supported accommodation service users exempt from the restrictions that apply to general needs rent allowance cases.  This definition does not catch rent rebate cases, where the claimant is a tenant or licensee of the same LA that pays his/her HB.

But there are three complications here:

1. To be an exempt accommodation case, the landlord must be a certain type of organisation - charity, HA, voluntary organisation or English shire county - the latter because HB is in the form of a rent allowance awarded by the district.  There is an argument that the new unitary authorities carved out of English shire counties since the 1990s (eg Nottingham) are technically an amalgam of a district and county and therefore still have the legal characteristic of a county council.  This would make their supported rebate cases exempt accommodation.  I am not altogether convinced by that and I don’t think it has ever been tested, but the advent of the bedroom tax and benefit cap may well generate some test cases. [Edit - having seen where you are posting from, I guess you are not interested in technical loopholes affecting English counties anyway!]

2. Lord Freud has let it be known that he understands and accepts that the definition of “exempt accommodation” may not be “fit for purpose” if it is plucked out of its original context of being a mechanism to disapply LHA and LRR/CRR in rent allowance cases.  There is particular concern about schemes where an HA is the landlord but the accommodation is managed by an agent-cum-SP-funded support provider, as these probably don’t fit the definition.  So the definition may be tweaked and widened to include more provision models than it currently does, perhaps including rent rebates.

3. It is not technically correct to say that exempt accommodation is exempt from the benefit cap, although for all practical purposes it is.  HB does not count towards the cap in an exempt accommodation case, and I don’t recall ever seeing an exempt accommodation claimant receiving more than £350/£500 a week in non-HB benefits and at the same time not otherwise exempt from the cap by virtue of personal factors (DLA etc). I think you are safe to assume exempt accommodation claimants will not be capped.

Exempt accommodation is completely exempt from the bedroom tax though.

Thank you for your reply. I work for an SP Team & our regional providers are getting different responses from different LAs.

My concern is that alot of our clients currently receive full HB for their supported accommodation (some have a small service charge/water charge) and if their benefits were to be ‘capped’ they would have impossible top ups. I know my Housing Options colleagues were particularly concerned about their supported temporary accommodation for the same reason.

I have had a go at making a quick reference guide to all this - uploaded below.

Any help?

Can anyone point me in the direction of the amending legislation that says that the charges in exempt accommodation are not subject to the benefits cap?

I can’t find it anywhere

chris smith - 01 September 2013 07:19 PM

Can anyone point me in the direction of the amending legislation that says that the charges in exempt accommodation are not subject to the benefits cap?

HB Reg 75C(2)(a) ( inserted by reg 2(2) of http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/546/contents/made )