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Temporary accommodation and Housing benefit
I am really puzzled by how the rules on Housing Benefit work in relation to homeless people placed in temporary accommodation. On the face of it people placed in B and B or any other kind of accommodation should be covered by HB, but this does not seem to be happening in Liverpool and certainly the cost to the Council of temporary accommodation is soaring. What am I overlooking? Are there some kinds of temporary accommodation which are excluded? There may of course be some people who have no access to public funds but not the majority. . Even if the HB doesn’t cover the full costs shouldn’t it be claimed in the regular way? Can anyone point me to the relevant legislation?
Ruth
TA is covered by HB (as per the TP Regs) but it is limited. I think this is because the government thinks landlords tend to take the mickey a bit, and they think local authorities should pay for this rather than HB. The rules on the limits are set in the Income-related Benefits (Subsidy to Authorities) Order 1998 (see Arts 17-17C). There is an absolute cap, but below that the limit is based on 90% of LHA rates, so the fact that the LHA rates are so low is having an impact.
Thanks Timothy. That’s really clarified things for me. There will obviously be a shortfall between what is paid by the LA and what the government returns but our expenditure on Temporary Accommodation seems huge. I will investigate further.
Ruth
TA is covered by HB (as per the TP Regs) but it is limited. I think this is because the government thinks landlords tend to take the mickey a bit, and they think local authorities should pay for this rather than HB. The rules on the limits are set in the Income-related Benefits (Subsidy to Authorities) Order 1998 (see Arts 17-17C). There is an absolute cap, but below that the limit is based on 90% of LHA rates, so the fact that the LHA rates are so low is having an impact.
LHA rates from 2011 as well!
Worth noting that HB only covers temporary accommodation under homelessness duties and there will be other forms of temporary accommodation e.g. under the Children Act, where no HB payable at all. This is likely to be a much smaller proportion than under homelessness duties though.