A Landlord's / Support Provider's Guide To Benefits Funding For Supported Accommodation Charges
THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR THIS WORKSHOP ARE PEOPLE WORKING ON THE PROVIDER SIDE: HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS, CHARITIES, VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS AND SUPPORT PROVIDERS.
This Programme is only available as In-House Workshops for individual organisations - either Online or at your own training venue.
In-House Workshop option: The content can be tailored to focus on issues relevant to your organisation. For example, registered housing associations might not require the topic that deals with charities and voluntary organisations. Let us know your requirements and we will endeavour to accommodate them.
A Provider's Guide To Benefits Funding For Supported Accommodation Charges.
The benefit rules governing supported accommodation charges can be a minefield for providers and administrators alike. This Workshop looks at the key issues involved from the PROVIDER side of the debates.
This Workshop aims to equip providers with the knowledge and resources to obtain positive outcomes in their dealings with local authority HB departments: ensuring that enquiries and evidence gathering are conducted as quickly as possible; maximising entitlement; and if necessary winning Tribunal appeals.
Disputes and drawn-out correspondence typically involve the following issues:
• Whether a scheme provides “specified accommodation” attracting HB as opposed to Universal Credit;
• Whether a scheme belongs to the subcategory of "exempt accommodation", which enjoys a more generous calculation of HB.
We begin by defining the two hey terms - specified and exempt accommodation - looking at the kinds of landlord who are able to provide this kind of accommodation and the different ways in which care, support or supervision are delivered. We will look at how particular models fit these definitions, including supported living, single homeless projects and cases where scheme management is delegated to an agent.
A quite common subject for disputes and appeals is whether a landlord is providing “more than minimal” support. What kind of evidence will persuade a local authority that this is the case? In what format should records be maintained?
Once it is established that a scheme is exempt or specified accommodation, the next question is how much HB will be awarded. There are different rules that depend on whether the claimant’s landlord is a registered housing association or not. The amount of eligible rent for other bodies, such as charities and CICs, might be restricted in circumstances when a registered HA’s rent would not. The Workshop covers these rules in detail - When will HB be restricted to the Local Housing Allowance; When will an individual Rent Officer’s valuation apply; And when might the Council apply a reduction on its own initiative because it considers the rent to be unreasonably high?
The HB calculation often requires the Council to look at service charges, deciding whether the charges are eligible in nature and reasonable in amount. Perhaps the most frequently asked question regarding service charges is whether, and to what extent, “intensive/enhanced/additional housing management” is eligible to be funded by HB – especially if it has been relied on to demonstrate that more than minimal support is being provided. We will consider the implications of the most recent case law on this subject. Other ‘service charge’ FAQs include: Splitting personal and communal fuel use; Maintenance of adaptations and special equipment; Pooling charges across a portfolio of properties; Security/concierge charges; and multi-function devices (e.g. CCTV entry system combined with emergency alarm). We will cover all of these matters.
Finally, we examine the landlord’s role as a stakeholder in the HB process: Receiving payments of HB, potentially being liable for repayment of overpaid HB, appealing in your own right as landlord and representing service users in their appeals.
About the presenter: Peter Barker is one of the country's foremost experts on Housing Benefit in general and has a wealth of experience in handling complex exempt accommodation case work, including appeals to both First-Tier and Upper Tribunals. His work has involved assisting both accommodation providers and local authorities with courses and consultancy work for a diverse range of client groups, including drug and alcohol recovery, youngsters estranged from their families, ex-offenders, mental health, and profound learning disability and/or physical disability. Peter's unique insight from the point of view of both providers and decision makers enables him to help providers, Commissioners and HB decision makers deal with the issues involved in a fair. amicable and positive way.
Topics Covered:
· Understanding The Key Definitions
o Specified accommodation.
o Exempt accommodation.
· Satisfying The Landlord Condition
o Non-profit bodies.
o Registered housing associations and others.
· Care, Support And Supervision
o In various kinds of scheme: Supported living, single homeless, etc.
o Evidence.
· Rent
o Standard restrictions: LHA, LRR, bedroom tax.
o Exemption from standard restrictions.
o Challenging "unreasonably high rent" decisions.
· Service Charges
o What is eligible / ineligible.
o Restriction of unreasonably high service charges.
o IHM/EHM/AHM.
o FAQs:
· Payments, overpayments and appeals
o Landlord as a stakeholder
o Receiving HB payments and liability for overpayments
o Representing service users in appeals
Delegates are encouraged to send in advance examples of current issues they have with local authorities — whether you are struggling to put together a reply to an in-depth enquiry about charges or looking to challenge an adverse decision. We will then endeavour to raise it during the Workshop.
We are always pleased to arrange most of our Workshops, such as this one, for staff from an individual organisation to be held at their own training venue or by Zoom/TEAMS. Please email us with your requirements for details.
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