The future of housing benefit for supported accommodation has become a little clearer but uncertainties remain. Nicola Evans explains
Like many throughout the supported housing sector, Cymorth Cymru and its members have been following the recent developments in the \’exempt supported accommodation\’ debate with great interest. the lack of certainty around the definition has left many providers in wales in limbo.
Whilst it has felt like somewhat of a long wait at times, there now seems to be a clearer if not definite picture emerging from DWP regarding its plans for supported accommodation. At our recent briefing session, Welfare reform: State of Play, the sector received an update from the Welsh Government on the most recent developments in relation to the short-term arrangements and specifically the definition of ‘exempt supported accommodation’.
In February Lord Freud told the Work and Pensions Select Committee that he expected to introduce regulations in April to protect more supported housing from key aspects of working age welfare reform in the short term.
He said: \’We will be defining supported accommodation in a broader way so that it protects more hostels and refuges. The groups that we are looking at are where care and accommodation is provided separately, so that would be brought in together. We have talked to sector representatives as we developed this wider set of regulations. They are comfortable that, of all the provision that had been at risk– and this is because the definition of supported exempt accommodation had been fairly fuzzy, I think, is the best word— we would capture virtually all of it and protect it.\’
When questioned further on which bits of supported accommodation would remain outside of the definition and whether the intention is to include all supported accommodation, the welfare reform minister replied that \’I use the expression \”virtually all\” just because in a complicated area there may be some odd anomalies\’. These anomalies, it would seem, refer to ‘the odd hostel here or there that when they look at it they probably will have to adapt slightly to fit in\’.
The amending regulations will now be sent to the Social Security Advisory Committee and local authority associations for statutory referral. Subject to that, Lord Freud expects the regulations to come into force in April 2014 for housing benefit and from October for universal credit.
Whilst it is encouraging to know that more supported accommodation will be included in the ‘exempt’ definition, concerns still remain around how many projects will in fact fall outside this
category. Lord Freud reassured the committee that the relevant organisations will be informed so we look forward to further details in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, providers will need to continue to look to discretionary housing payments to make up the shortfall for those individuals affected by the benefit cap and where the project does not meet the current definition of ‘exempt supported accommodation’. Whereas \’exempt supported accommodation\’ will continue to be exempt from the benefit cap, it would seem that it will not be exempted from the bedroom tax.
The longer term arrangements for housing benefit for supported housing are still under discussion, with Lord Freud informing the select committee that he wants to work out a way of getting specialised housing dealt with in a more flexible and dynamic way. Cymorth Cymru and our partners will be working closely with the Welsh Government to help shape the detail around the likely devolution of the fund to Wales after April 2016.
Nicola Evans is policy and information manager at Cymorth Cymru