Temporary Accommodation – Questions and Answers

1. Is this another welfare cut?

No. The reforms will be cost neutral overall.

2. Why are you basing the entitlement in Universal Credit on the household and not the property?

This is consistent with our approach to housing support across the board and aligns temporary accommodation with mainstream accommodation in UC by making the housing costs reflective of the claimant’s circumstances rather than the type of accommodation they are placed into.

It will also ensure that for those claimants on UC there is a smoother transition when they move into more permanent settled accommodation.

3. Why are you not changing the Local Housing Allowance rates in April 2013 for HB claims for temporary accommodation?

This approach will allow LAs and providers to adjust to the changes in a phased manner and will not mean a heavy workload for LAs of having to process people in temporary accommodation alongside a new system from April 2013 and then a further change in October 2013.

4. Will the management charge element involve an increase in authorities’ DHP pots or will authorities have to decide whether to divert existing DHP funds away from helping claimants?

The management element is recognition of the increased financial costs associated with providing temporary accommodation.  We want to ensure that this funding gets to LAs - who have the homelessness duty - so that they can continue to provide support to people in need of help.

We are still considering how the separate management element will be paid but our preferred option is to provide additional funding through the discretionary housing payments fund with a mechanism to reflect changes in local caseloads.

5. What impact will the benefit cap have on those in temporary accommodation?

The benefit cap will apply to people in temporary accommodation whether claiming through HB subsidy or Universal Credit. However, any discretionary housing payments (DHPs) they might receive will not be taken into account, meaning they will be on top of their benefit entitlement under the cap.

We are providing an additional £75 million in DHPs for 2013/14 and another £45 million in 2014/15 to allow LA to support those claimants affected by benefit cap who, as a result of a number of complex challenges, cannot immediately move into work or more affordable accommodation.

6. You say that the majority of people are housed in private rented accommodation. What are the exact figures?

For England only, at the end of June 2012 there were 51,640 households in temporary accommodation, of which:

• 25,930 households were living in accommodation that has been leased by the LA from the private sector.
• 8,490 households were in other classified private rented sector accommodation.
• 4,270 households were in Bed & Breakfast (B&B) accommodation.

Combined this equates to nearly three quarters of the total households within temporary accommodation living in private rented accommodation.

Source: Department for Communities and Local Government’s quarterly housing statistics published 6 September 2012.

7. What are you doing to tackle the increase in the use of B&B accommodation?

As reported in the media there has been a recent increase in the use of B&B accommodation, although levels are much lower than in the last decade. 

The Bed and Breakfast Order 2004 makes it illegal for authorities to place households with families in B&B accommodation, unless in an emergency and then for no longer than six weeks. Ministers have been clear that there is no excuse for any family to be stuck in this form of accommodation and support has been offered to the 20 LAs who account for 80 per cent of B&B usage.

We are monitoring the use of B&B accommodation and will keep the position under review.

8. Why haven’t you consulted with stakeholders on these reforms?

We held an informal consultation last year on our intentions and have taken the time to consider our position in the light of the wider welfare reform agenda.

We appreciate it is important that we give stakeholder and LAs advance notice of the changes, to provide certainty to the sector.