An update on the Supported Housing Regulatory Oversight Act (SHROA), supported housing licensing, the DWP’s potential definition of “support”, the possible abolition of housing benefit, the Exempt Accommodation Project (EAP) and its role in helping councils manage subsidy recovery for supported housing and temporary accommodation, and as a “community of good practice”, and finally case law to show that intensive housing management and maintenance are “support”.
Tag: intensive housing management
What is “Care, Support or Supervision”, and can it be Funded through Enhanced Housing Benefit?
The purpose of this blog post is to challenge the notion that “care, support or supervision” (CSS) in its entirety isn’t eligible to be funded by (enhanced) housing benefit.
Help With Claiming Enhanced Housing Benefit
Supported housing providers will have noticed recently that enhanced housing benefit claims are subject to more intense scrutiny than has historically been the case.
Claiming Enhanced Housing Benefit & the DWP Housing Benefit Guidance for Supported Housing Claims
This briefing is aimed at supported housing providers claiming enhanced housing benefit [both registered providers and non-registered providers] and local authority supported housing commissioning and Revenues and Benefits colleagues.
The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023
The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act has some shortcomings, however, it’s a very big step in the right direction towards ridding supported housing of the parasites that infest it in the guise of certain supported housing providers, RPs, developers and investors that are interested in financially abusing people with additional needs in return for shoddy properties and negligible or no support.
The Exempt Accommodation Inquiry Report
There is a saying that “hard cases make bad law” and I believe, unfortunately, that this is what we’re seeing here. With some exceptions, notably on domestic violence and abuse services, this Report is a missed opportunity based on an inadequate grasp of the supported housing ecosystem that it wishes to reform.
The Problems with Exempt Accommodation
This influx of the uninvited has led to significant pressure on local authorities and enhanced Housing Benefit. Alleged supported housing providers, whether connected to dubiously motivated private capital or not, have popped up all over the place, usually in the form of a CIC, and demanded enhanced Housing Benefit for alleged supported housing services that no one asked them to provide.
Problems Claiming Enhanced Housing Benefit?
Charities, voluntary organisations and registered providers (housing associations) that provide supported housing and/or tenancy sustainment services are entitled to Enhanced Housing Benefit to provide Intensive Housing Management. However, all things are not equal and some organisations are, in practice, more entitled than others.
The Exempt Accommodation Project
It simply wrong and discriminatory that tenants’ entitlements to Enhanced Housing Benefit, which is a personal benefit, are dependent on the legal identity of their landlord.
Intensive Housing Management & Enhanced Housing Benefit
A List of Routinely Eligible Intensive Housing Management Tasks & Functions