WIREDGOV

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has put proposals to the independent Social Security Advisory Committee and the local authority associations that would exclude benefit paid to cover housing costs in most supported housing from being:

• Taken into account for the household benefit cap
• Met via the Universal Credit rent element (which means calendar monthly payment in arrears, typically direct to the tenant’s bank account).

The DWP’s proposals would create four categories of accommodation that would be excluded:

• Accommodation that meets the current “exempt accommodation” definition in Housing Benefit
• A new, wider category of supported accommodation where the care, support or supervision does not have to be provided by the claimant’s landlord (the same groups of housing providers as for “exempt accommodation”).
• Women’s refuges, including refuges of the same groups as for “exempt accommodation”, but also where the landlord is a local housing authority
• Housing authority hostels where the tenant receives care support or supervision.

We have concerns about the requirement in the DWP proposals for the new, wider category of supported housing that the claimant has been “placed” in the accommodation to meet a need for care, support or supervision: claimants who had been self-referrals would not qualify for the protection.

Homeless Link continues to work with SITRA, the Chartered Institute of Housing, the National Housing Federation, and the Women’s Aid Federation of England to ensure that accommodation for homeless people is protected from the adverse effects of recent and forthcoming benefit changes.