Shelter Cymru has uncovered worrying evidence that people with disabilities are missing out on discretionary housing payments that are meant to mitigate the impact of housing benefit cuts
A recent and worrying trend that has come up in our casework that suggests that people with disabilities are facing yet another blow as a result of the bedroom tax.
It seems that a number of local authorities are counting disability-related benefits as income when assessing eligibility for discretionary housing payments (DHPs).
While DWP guidance on DHPs allows authorities to insist that disabled people use disability-related income to pay the rent, unless they can provide evidence that the money is needed elsewhere, we consider this approach to be unfair and discriminatory.
Vital resource
Essentially it treats disability benefits as ‘spare’ money, rather than a vital resource for people to live equitable lives. For tenants in receipt of community care, their DLA has already been taken into account as part of their financial assessment for charges and should not be counted twice.
Unfortunately, the lawfulness of such policies from a discriminatory perspective is unlikely to be tested due to recent restrictions in legal aid.
Currently DHPs are the only lifeline available to thousands of households in Wales affected by the bedroom tax, many of whom are unable to move due to lack of alternative accommodation. Disabled people are already severely prejudiced by this policy, making up around two-thirds of those affected.
Local authorities have it within their discretion to disregard income from disability-related benefits when assessing DHPs, since it is intended to be used to meet the extra costs of disability. Instead, our advisers are finding that many authorities are counting DLA/PIP payments as income and requiring disabled DHP applicants to provide evidence for all disability-related expenditure.
While there is technically nothing to prevent authorities from counting disability- related benefits as income for DHP purposes, we consider it to be extremely poor practice that further disadvantages people who are already disproportionately affected by welfare reform.
It means that while disabled social tenants are more likely to be affected by the bedroom tax, they are less likely to be able to access assistance via DHPs. They also have fewer options to self-mitigate the impacts of the reforms as they will invariably have to wait longer for a downsize.
Furthermore, the policy decision to count DLA/PIP as income when assessing DHPs can also lead to injustices through administrative failings.
For example, in September, Matthew*, one of our clients, had his DHP cancelled because he had been diagnosed with cancer, which had meant an increase in DLA. His local authority did not get in touch with him to find out why his DLA had been increased but simply cancelled the DHP payment.
Although he is being assisted to reapply, had the authority taken the policy decision to disregard disability income this situation would never have arisen at such a difficult time.
A clearer picture
This is why Shelter Cymru, together with a range of other housing and disability- related organisations, have written to all local authorities to ask them to explain their approach to the issue so we can get a clearer picture of the variations across Wales.
If a local authority has chosen to include disability-related income in its DHP eligibility assessments, we are asking on what basis they are confident that this does not disadvantage people with disabilities by expecting them to divert income that is meant for care and mobility in order to meet rent shortfalls.
This issue highlights once again the complete inadequacy of DHP funding to support those most badly affected by the bedroom tax. Local authorities are trying to do a great deal with very little and the strain is already showing, just months after the introduction of this punitive and unfair policy.
In Scotland, the government has provided an extra £20 million for local authorities to top up their DHP pots. In the end, this is a sticking plaster solution, but it will help to give some of the worst hit a temporary reprieve while other options can be explored.
While we appreciate the difficult position of the Welsh Government, in light of this evidence that disabled people are yet again taking the brunt of the fall-out from the bedroom tax, we would strongly suggest that it gives serious consideration to providing a similar top up.