Housing Costs in Universal Credit

Hi

Can anyone confirm or deny that Housing Costs will be included in the new areas? Im particularly interested in the Bolton and Bury areas and have read conflicting information as to whether those with housing costs will have to claim UC.

Thank you

Claimants with “existing housing costs”  weren’t excluded from UC (as a group).

However..

(1) Claimants with certain types of housing costs (e.g. owner-occupier and supported accom) are excluded; and

(2) Up until today, anyone entitled to HB was excluded from UC. (This has now changed but I think that many (most) HB claimants will still be excluded because of the other gateway conditions.)

Hi
Thanks for the reply. DO you know what the other gateway conditions are?

We provided written bond guarantees to replace a cash deposit for homeless people, so we regularly support people to move in to private rented properties and claim Local Housing Allowance. Some are moving on from hostels and supported accommodation and others are no fixed abode or care of family/friends. Most are existing benefit claimants at the point of moving. Many have additional issues, such as substance misuse, mental health problems and former tenancy arrears. At the moment, we are able to get all our LHA claims paid directly to the landlord due to having service level agreements with the LA Housing Benefit depts in the areas we work in. A big concern for us is that this arrangement will be lost in the transfer to UC, leading to a higher risk of rent arrears and a loss of landlords willing to use the scheme.

Im trying to get some info together for landlords about UC in Bolton, but Im not a benefits adviser and only have general knowledge of the changes. Im finding it tricky to get a definitive answer on who is affected and how in Bolton and Bury.

Any additional info or a shove in the right direction would be most appreciated.

Many Thanks

Alison

The mid-June version of the gateway conditions are covered in the Advice to Decision Makers (ADM) chapter M3 which is here:-

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/324537/admm3.pdf

In particular the provisions on homelessness and supported accomodation ( see paragraph M3112 on page 14)  and possibly also those on fitness to work (see paragraph M3080 on page 10) might be relevant for your clients.

Since then further changes have been made to the gateway conditions (see today’s Rightsnet new story) but neither of those parts of the conditions are affected.

here’s a link to the rightsnet news story on the new regs -

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/news/story/amendments-to-the-universal-credit-gateway-conditions