Temporary homeless accommodation

Hi

I’m having somewhat conflicting advice between HB and UC on where housing costs should be claimed in these circumstances…your advice would be appreciated.

We have a young tenant age 19 who claimed UC sometime after February whilst in private rented accommodation - hence housing costs paid through UC.  She returned to live with parents in July having become pregnant.

She is now in Temporary Supported Homeless Accommodation.  UC have said that housing costs should be paid through HB.  HB refer to HB circular A9/2014 - as she has already migrated.

We are concerned that housing costs paid under UC in these circumstances.  The rental element will be based on the LHA rate for the household size or the actual rent, whichever is the lowest.  The benefit cap will apply, as will the shared accommodation rate; the RSRS is not applicable as it does not apply to LHA cases and the housing element is based on the size of the claimant’s household.

Many thanks in advance

The first thing to establish is whether it is “specified accommodation” for which no UC housing element is payable.  If so, the claimant should claim HB for the rent.  It doesn’t matter that she has migrated to UC because people in specified accommodation get HB and UC both at the same time.

Specified accommodation means:

- “exempt accommodation” proper, where the landlord is a not for profit body who also provides support
- a hostel provided directly by the same council that pays HB
- accommodation where the landlord is a not-for-profit body and the claimant was “admitted” to the accommodation in order to receive support.  It does not matter if that support is them delivered by A N Other - it doesn’t have to be the landlord
- any domestic violence refuge provided either by the Council or by a not-for-profit body

I am assuming you are the landlord so the first or third of those options will be the likeliest.

If that definition is satisfied, HB is payable.  It does not matter whether the accommodation is also homeless temp acc as well - some housing association accommodation will be both specified accommodation and homeless temp acc, but as long as it is specified acc that puts the rent under HB and not UC.  Specified accommodation “trumps” temp acc in other words.

If it is not specified accommodation, then the rent is covered by UC.  If it is temporary accommodation as defined in para 21 of Schedule 4 to the UC Regs then yes, the housing element is based on LHA and counts towards the benefit cap.  If this means that UC covers less than the government would have been willing to pay to the Council by way of HB subsidy there is supposed to be some kind of balancing payment from the government to make up the difference but I have not yet heard of any examples of how this would work in practice, especially when the provider is not the Council itself.

The definition of temp acc is:

(2) Case 1 is where—

(a) rent payments are payable to a local authority;

(b) the local authority makes the accommodation available to the renter—

(i)to discharge any of the local authority’s functions under Part 3 of the Housing Act 1985, Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 or Part 2 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, or

(ii)to prevent the person being or becoming homeless within the meaning of Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 or Part 2 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987; and

(c) the accommodation is not exempt accommodation.

(3) Case 2 is where—

(a)rent payments are payable to a provider of social housing other than a local authority;

(b) that provider makes the accommodation available to the renter in pursuance of arrangements made with it by a local authority—

(i) to discharge any of the local authority’s functions under Part 3 of the Housing Act 1985, Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 or Part 2 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, or

(ii) to prevent the renter being or becoming homeless within the meaning of Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 or Part 2 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987; and

(c) the accommodation is not exempt accommodation.

I must admit I am totally confused by all this.

If its UC (housing element)
1) The Housing Element will be based on the LHA rate for the household (not the property)
2) This applies in all cases (whether property is licensed or leased)
3) The management element goes to the LA

if its a TA /Housing Benefit

1 Social Sector Rent criteria applies ie bedroom tax if…....... its your property

2) But, if its licensed or leased by your HA for the purposes of TA ........ err…. I didn’t think it did. (??).   

Anyway that is what I thought…......

HB anorak ??

Yes, they do sometimes: HALS, it’s called

No wait, sorry - misunderstood you.  You meant you didn’t think the social sector size criteria apply to HALS, right?

Yes, you are right: if temp acc is provided in self-contained HA accommodation which the HA owns outright (no lease, no licence) the bedroom tax still applies in HB.  But in UC it’s still temp acc, so housing element is based on claimant’s personal LHA.

Many thanks

We have submitted a new HB claim this afternoon with covering letter referencing The Housing Benefit and Universal Credit (Supported Accommodation) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.  Onwards and upwards…!

Andrea

Hello… we have reached an impasse with Housing Benefit who are essentially refusing to accept a claim…

We have acknowledged the provisions for the payment of housing costs for temporary accommodation in Universal Credit as outlined in Circular A9/2014.  However,  pointed out that this accommodation falls under the definition of ‘specified accommodation’ and it is therefore incidental that this is also homeless temporary accommodation.  Accordingly rent payment under the Housing Costs element of Universal Credit is not permitted.  Universal Credit Regulations 2013, Schedule 1, Para 3 and that In these circumstances we believe housing costs should be met by the local authority under the provisions of The Housing Benefit and Universal Credit (Supported Accommodation) (Amendment) Regulations 2014. 

HB however, keep doggedly referring back to Circular A9/2014 - the main thrust of their argument is that for claimants who are already in receipt of UC who report a change of circ resulting in them becoming homeless and placed in temporary accommodation, the claimant will continue to receive UC, including the rental element for their accommodation (para 5 of the circular).  They also state that they have had another customer who has the same situation (?) and they have been awarded Housing Costs via UC.

I feel that we have been very specific that the accommodation falls under the definition of ‘specified accommodation’ but that there appears to be a ‘blindspot’ around the fact that it is also temporary accommodation.  Given that the tenancy is now in its fifth week we are naturally keen to find some resolution.

All help/advice gratefully received.

Andrea

Oh dear, they are getting confused between gateway conditions and housing costs.  Paragraph 5 of the Circular is making the point that even though people in temp acc cannot make a new claim for UC in most places, they can stay on UC if they were already getting it before entering temp acc.  The circular does not drill down to the level of granularity that your case involves - the circular is based on an assumption that it only applies to people with UC-eligible housing costs.  The circular is about the “how” and not the “whether” - it presupposes that we have got past the “whether”.  The circular does not address the particular issue of specified accommodation that is also temporary accommodation. 

This is the danger of councils relying on circulars rather than legislation.

I am sure there must be someone who understands this in the Council.  Which Council is it?  I might have a contact I can suggest

Many thanks for your response.  It’s Hambleton District Council. 
Further update this morning it that it is being discussed at director level.  The blind spot has been pointed out….
In the meantime Housing Options have agreed to pay the housing costs until it is resolved.

The classification of Specified accommodation was really created in part to protect Homeless People and providers who were accommodating Homeless people.

The idea was that from November 2014 Universal Credit claimants in Specified Accommodation would receive Housing Benefit instead of Universal Credit Housing Costs.

This was important according to Homeless Link as:

• It would give the protection from monthly assessment and payment which had unnerved homelessness agencies because many clients left after less than a
month or in the middle of the month.
• The risk of vulnerable clients living in hostels etc receiving large monthly rent payments was removed.

Prior to November 2014 these protections only applies to “exempt accommodation”.

Clients in Specified are not subject to Benefit Cap but unlike Exempt Accommodation, the other categories of Specified Accommodation are still subject to the Under-Occupancy Subsidy (“Bedroom Tax”)

You might have figured out that is creating problems. I don’t know if the Under OCC stuff will create Andrea a problem in the future?? (proposed changes to social rents)

The official solution is err….... DHP.

Hello all

We have a similar situation to that raised by Andrea Peacock in her posting 11th January 2016, hence I am using this thread. 

Back in January 2016 we had asked Local Authority to treat claims at a Temporary Accommodation scheme as Exempt Supported Accommodation.  LA initially agreed (early 2016).  However, a new resident has moved in with existing UC claim – they have referred claimant to DWP to make UC claim including housing costs.  We have argued that this is Exempt and therefore housing costs should be claimed via HB, not via UC.

LA say they have recently been visited by the DWP Housing Benefit Auditors checking the status of the accommodation, where the question of its ‘exempt’ status been raised in connection with questions being asked and concerns being raised nationally about temporary accommodation in relation to Universal Credit.

To quote the LA:
“The rules regarding the ‘exempt’ status for Universal Credit purposes are currently different for ‘supported housing’ and ‘temporary accommodation’ – temporary accommodation where claimants have been placed in the accommodation under the Local Authority’s homeless function is covered under the ‘temporary’ status and as such a claimant should make a claim for the Housing Costs through Universal Credit.”
“Although you are providing some degree of support to the claimants, because you have an agreement (with the LA) to provide the accommodation on a temporary basis under the homeless function the UC and HB rules currently state that the accommodation cannot be treated as ‘exempt’ “

HB Anorak’s posting of 7th December 2015 quotes the Meaning of “temporary accommodation” within The Universal Credit Regulations 2013 – this clearly states that if accommodation satisfies the definition of ‘Exempt Accommodation’, then it should not be treated as ‘Temporary Accommodation’ for UC purposes.

I am planning to go back to the LA quoting this.

My question to the forum is – has anything changed over the last 12 months to undermine this argument?

Many thanks

No, still the same: your starting point is para 3 of Schedule 1 to the UC Regs which lists the payments that are not eligible for UC.  It refers to “specified accommodation” which is defined in the same way as it is for HB.  For some reason you will find it very difficult to trace a consolidated version of Schedule 1 online, but the amending regulations are explained in HB Circular A8/2014.  In short, payments for specified accommodation do not attract UC and the claimant remains entitled to HB.  This is reinforced in Regs 5(2) and 6(8) of the UC Transitional Provisions Regs 2014 which say that a UC claimant who occupies specified accommodation can continue to receive and/or make a new claim for HB.

If the Council and DWP apply those rules correctly, you don’t even get as far as the definition of temp acc for UC purposes in Schedule 4: that definition provides for the housing element to be calculated in a certain way for claimants who live in temp acc, but a claimant who is in specified accommodation does not have a housing element in the first place.

PS thought this would lend itself to a simple flowchart - attached

Nice one HB Anorak!

Superb. Thanks HB Anorak. 

There’s a fine line between Anorak and Guru…. :-)

...Or, indeed, Anorak and God!

That flowchart is really helpful, HB Anorak. Thank you.

I thought my new soup maker was going to be the most useful thing I’d encountered this year. Not so, it seems. Congratulations, you’re now officially more useful than a soup maker.

We’ve got one of them ... a giant kettle with a blender?  But we already had a big pan and a blender, so what’s the point

HB Anorak - 06 December 2016 09:06 AM

We’ve got one of them ... a giant kettle with a blender?  But we already had a big pan and a blender, so what’s the point

You don’t have to do the blending and you also don’t have chop the veg into manageable sizes. You can have a bath and let the thing get on with it. You can fall to sleep and not wake up to a pan of pain and burn. They are very useful.

You’re being modest, HB.

HB Anorak - 06 December 2016 09:06 AM

We’ve got one of them ... a giant kettle with a blender?  But we already had a big pan and a blender, so what’s the point

We’ve just got one of the one pot wonders that does all sorts of cooking automatically, from soups to stews to risottos.  Got a good deal on the Kitchenaid Cookprocessor at John Lewis and are awaiting our free food processor add-on now.  Made bread yesterday and a pretty good Tikka Masala the day before (spices not ketchup).  Another risotto planned for Saturday.

Gareth Morgan - 06 December 2016 10:43 AM

HB Anorak - 06 December 2016 09:06 AM

We’ve got one of them ... a giant kettle with a blender?  But we already had a big pan and a blender, so what’s the point

We’ve just got one of the one pot wonders

So long as it isn’t a lobster pot Gareth.

1964 - 06 December 2016 12:41 PM

So long as it isn’t a lobster pot Gareth.

Nope, you can take things out of it.