Exempt Accommodation, Welfare Reform & Vulnerable

Tenants

Michael Patterson:

Support Solutions

October 2013

Key Questions

Exempt Accommodation: what is it & why is it helpful?

Additional Housing Management Services

Reviewing Exempt Accommodation: the need for change

Uncertainty & its Consequences

Key Questions

Case Law & Precedent to Support Exempt Accommodation Scenarios

Exempt Accommodation & Welfare Reform

Reinventing Exempt AccommodationTenancy SustainmentLooking to the Future

Context

The purpose of today is to look at what Exempt Accommodation is & why it’s so important, especially in the context of Welfare Reform. We need to look at the future for Exempt Accommodation, recent DWP announcements and the need for a reinvention of funding for preventative Additional Housing Management Services for vulnerable people.

Exempt Accommodation

Nonprofit landlord (County Council, Registered Provider, Voluntary Organisation or Charity)

Legal interest in accommodation (ownership or lease), in which….

….”care support & supervision is provided”Where the service is provided by or on behalf of the

LandlordAccommodation-based & tenancy

sustainment/floating support can be Exempt Accommodation

Why Exempt Accommodation is HelpfulHas helped manage the retrenchment of

Supporting PeopleHas enhanced/protected levels of revenue

for Providers Enhances services to vulnerable tenantsProtects tenants from some Welfare Reform

implications:“Bedroom Tax”/Under Occupancy Charge

Why Exempt Accommodation is Helpful

Benefit CapDirect payment of rent

LAs reclaim what they pay through HB via the annual subsidy claim where an RP is involved

Very cost-effective way of funding preventative services that enable independence in relation to housing

Why Exempt Accommodation is HelpfulTakes pressure off statutory services such

as the NHS, Social Care, Homeless & Criminal Justice.

The Exempt Accommodation rules allow for the payment of enhanced Housing Benefit for Intensive Housing Management/Additional Housing Management Services

Additional Housing Management ServicesGeneral housing management more

intensively providedAdditional Housing Management Services

given the vulnerabilities of the tenantsAccess control/ConciergeNon-emergency on callTenancy sustainment workDepreciation of furniture, fixtures, white goods over

shorter periods

Additional Housing Management Services

Handyperson & gardening/grounds servicesCCTVDoor entry systemsLifts maintenanceProactive communications systems that reduce

the need for (and costs of) unfundable hardwired alarm systems

Not an exhaustive list…….

Exempt Accommodation &Additional Housing Management ServicesHousing Corporation defined – ‘A guide to

Supported Housing’ www.supportsolutions.co.uk/docs/guide_to_supported_housing.pdf

Current Discussion Around Exempt Accommodation

The DWP has said it will review Exempt Accommodation

It is currently quantifying the amount of HB spent on Exempt Accommodation

Is encouraging the challenging of Exempt Accommodation claims

Cash-limited pot & finite eligible charge list?

Exempt Accommodation: Time for Change?The Exempt Accommodation rules have served the

sector well since 1996They do need to be revised to take account of:

Changes since their inception Their own inherent limitations

They can still be made to work as they stand but it requires external/structural changes or more complicated explanations

Contrary to popular myth they haven’t been changed by the DWP’s recent announcement

Exempt Accommodation: Time for Change?Unequal treatment of non-RP EA providersfocus on the nature/legal identity of the

landlord & therefore ignoring vulnerable people in private accommodation

use of limited/outdated LA definitions (Non Met County Council)

potential for confusion over agency managed schemes.

Uncertainty & Its Consequences

The likelihood of some change (2017?) to the Exempt Accommodation rules has led to uncertainty by providers

This has been compounded by inadequate, and sometimes incorrect, advice

Irrespective of the outcome of any change to the Exempt Accommodation rules; providers with a legitimate entitlement to enhanced HB should claim it

Uncertainty & Its Consequences

….and why was the word “abuse” brought into the discussion? We’re not aware of the DWP having used that word.

Is sheltered housing Exempt Accommodation? It’s often challenged on the grounds it provides insufficient “care, support & supervision”.

And Agency-managed schemes? The “By or on behalf of the landlord” rule.

Case Law & Precedent

Judge Turnbull Legal PrecedentR(H) 6/08, R(H) 4/09 – ‘Support’ involves the landlord

doing more than, or different from, the exercise of its ordinary property management functions

Chorley BC v IT (HB) [2009] UKUT 107 (AAC) – support not confined to counselling, advising, encouraging etc. ‘the carrying out of repairs which clearly go beyond ordinary housing management can amount to support’

Intensive Housing Management can therefore be sufficient to qualify as exempt accommodation!

Case Law & Precedent

Judge Turnbull Legal PrecedentBristol CC v AW [2009] UKUT 109 (AAC) –

satisfactory test for determining support is more than minimal is to ask whether the support provided likely to make a real difference to the claimant’s ability to live in the property

And with agency-managed schemes; who is commissioning what?

Exempt Accommodation & Welfare ReformTenants in Exempt Accommodation enjoy

protection from some of the harsher elements of the Welfare Reform Act: Bedroom Tax/UOCBenefit CapDirect payment of rent (Payment Exceptions)

Those exemptions have recently been extended to tenants in agency-managed schemes and those in receipt of public subsidy

Exempt Accommodation & Welfare ReformThis does not constitute a change to the

Exempt Accommodation rules; it constitutes an expansion of the scope of exemptions from Welfare Reform Act implications.

“Public Subsidy”? presumably includes SP funding; personal budgets; other statutory funding? What about DLA/PIP?

Reinventing Exempt Accommodation

We think the exemptions already apply to agency-managed schemes under the Exempt Accommodation rules anyway, which just goes to show that clarity is needed

But the Exempt Accommodation rules (and new exemptions) don't include private tenants. Why not?

Reinventing Exempt Accommodation

We do need to reinvent Exempt Accommodation: can we do so in a way that makes the legal status of the landlord irrelevant?

There is a huge amount of vulnerability in general needs social lettings and in private accommodation.

Reinventing Exempt Accommodation

The DWP has said it is looking to review the EA rules from the perspective of no increase in expenditure

DWP/Lord Freud allegedly personally interested in EA as a consequence of a letter from Medway Council who have a £1.6m subsidy hole in their accounts, presumably due to non-RP EA claims.

Reinventing Exempt Accommodation

Another reason the EA rules need reviewing: uneven playing field between RPs and non-RP EA providers.

LAs can’t reclaim all of the enhanced HB they pay to non-Registered Provider landlords, even though they provide the same services to the same people

Reinventing Exempt Accommodation

Are we looking at a finite list of IHM/AHMS service charges as an outcome of any new system, perhaps based on a capped amount at local level?

If we are we'll need to ensure that as many legitimate ea claims and scenarios are established as soon as possible

The Cost Benefit of Prevention

Let’s remember the cost-benefit arguments around the inexpensive and personally enabling funding of prevention and independence vs. the expensive and personally painful circumstances of otherwise necessary emergency interventions.

CapGemini & Frontier Economics

Tenancy Sustainment

Why should vulnerable tenants in general needs social lettings not be deemed to be in EA scenarios whilst they need IHM/AHMS to support them to stay put?

The rules do not preclude this: it would be hugely cost-effective and beneficial to vulnerable people within the parameters of choice, independence and safety.

Tenancy Sustainment

But why limit it to social tenants? The landlord's status should be irrelevant; it's the competency and cost of the provider and the vulnerability of the person that matters, albeit that many providers may also be landlords in their own right; RPs for example.

Looking to the Future…..

How about a system that ignores the status of the vulnerable tenant's landlord but requires the delivery of ihm/ahms on and accredited basis with outcome-focused SFROI methodology?

Stop "revolving door” syndromeReduce evictions and tenancy failures

Looking to the Future…..

Take pressure off the NHS, criminal justice, homelessness and adult/Young People social care agendas. Enable RPs & other providers to provide IHM/AHMS subject to accreditation & FSROI justification.

Save an awful lot of moneyHelp an awful lot of otherwise vulnerable

people to live an "ordinary life"

Looking to the Future…..

We must focus on value not cost: the public funding paradigm has shifted.

One Department’s budget cut is another Department’s budgetary pressure; it makes no sense.

Need enhanced definition of "vulnerability" based on the need for early intervention/preventative work with vulnerable tenants, the focus being on enabling tenants to stay independent in relation to their accommodation

Looking to the Future…..

Inexpensive and supportive early intervention/prevention instead of expensive and painful emergency/crisis intervention.

Looking to the Future…..

Use EA/HB as a breathing space whilst we adapt to a different funding environment:Larger numbers of smaller, outcome-focused,

payment by results & FSROI justified contracts. Wider range of services to a wider range of

people. CCGs, LAs, Homelessness, Criminal Justice etc.

Social investment.

Looking to the Future…..

Plan B: allocate charges into the rent; UC/"New EA" service charge

But why not Plan A?Hugely cost-effectivePhilosophically right: the right to an ordinary lifeMassively increases the scope of prevention &

enablement by being tenure-neutralQuantitative and qualitative justification of

benefit

Looking to the Future…..

Needs work to address definitions of vulnerability in relation to accommodation

Needs work to develop SFROI methodologies

Needs the oxygen of publicity: 13th February 2014; ICC Birmingham

Briefing out next week

Looking to the Future…..

Providers need to act on the Exempt Accommodation rules as they stand and to organise around the nature of any change

The Media Bubble will be promoting the Reinvention of Exempt Accommodation using #ExemptAccommodation and #EA

Reflects ideas of Prof John SeddonWill receive high level media attention

Exempt Accommodation & Additional Housing Management ServicesPlease talk to us!

www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_12/exempt_accommodation.html

www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_12/ucihm.html

www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_11/intensive_housing_management_.html

www.supportsolutions.co.uk/blog/blog.html

Our Contact Details

Media House

3 Drayton Road

Birmingham B14 7LP

0845 271 3080

www.supportsolutions.co.uk

info@supportsolutions.co.ukTwitter @suppsolutions www.facebook.com/SupportSolutionsLtd?sk=wall

38