Millions of pounds could be wasted as the bedroom tax forces disabled people living in specially adapted homes to downsize
In early February, Wales & West Housing (WWH) released a report arguing that £40 million of public money could be wasted if all disabled residents living in specially adapted properties in Wales were forced to downsize into other newly adapted properties, as a result of the bedroom tax. the report dominated the Wales news agenda that day. Coverage was achieved on English and welsh language TV and radio as well as in the Western Mail, the Daily Post and Inside Housing.
The day after publication Welsh housing minister Carl Sargeant renewed his call for bedroom tax exemptions. ‘The report provides further evidence to support my call for disabled tenants living in homes that have been adapted to meet their needs, along with foster carers and army personnel, to be exempt from these welfare reforms,’ he said.
He also announced £1.3 million in additional funding for this financial year to top up the £6.2 million previously awarded by the UK Government. This is designed to support local authorities to be able to provide more discretionary housing payments (DHPs) to people struggling to cope with the impact of the changes.
But while this money is undoubtedly welcome, Wales & West’s own experience is that discretionary housing payments are not the answer to the problem, contrary to what the UK Government insists.
Deputy chief executive and commercial director Shayne Hembrow, said: ‘The experience of our seven tenancy support officers tells us that very few applicants are getting discretionary housing payments. We know this is because of the means testing that takes please and which takes account of all income, including disability benefits, against expenditure. It does seem to be fundamentally unfair to have to use the benefits given to you for continued care and support and to cope with your disability in order to pay the rent.’
Michael Halloran, tenancy support manager at WWH, said: ‘There is a contradiction that is at the heart of this problem. The UK Government insists that discretionary housing payments are the answer to people affected in adapted properties. However local authorities – applying the UK Government’s own guidelines set down by the Department of Work and Pensions – do not feel that many cases merit DHP awards as they can use their disability benefits to pay for the shortfall.’
Key findings of WWH’s report are as follows:
• Of the 779 Wales & West Housing households assessed as under occupying their homes, 74 (roughly 10 per cent) live in homes that have been specifically, and in many cases, substantially, adapted for their needs at an average cost of £7,700 each.
• As a result of the removal of the spare room subsidy almost half of these disabled households are now in arrears with their rent.
• If all the disabled residents living in significantly adapted properties are forced to move home it is estimated £575,000 of public money will have been wasted in adapting their properties in the first instance.
• Even if other, smaller, properties were available, it is estimated a further £600,000 would need to be spent adapting these to meet our residents’ needs.
• The estimated total cost to the public purse of WWH’s 74 disabled households having to move would be well over £1 million.
• Figures from 21 of the 22 local authorities across Wales show that approximately 35,000 households in Wales have been affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy. If 10 per cent of these are disabled households with substantial adaptations – as is the case with WWH residents – it is estimated that around 3,500 households will have been similarly affected.
• The estimated total cost to the public purse in Wales of the removal of the spare room subsidy for disabled people in substantially adapted properties would be £40 million.
Wales & West Housing sent its report to work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith and is now sharing its findings, and a response from Lord Freud, minister for welfare reform, with politicians, charities, faith groups and other stakeholders throughout Wales.
‘We were profoundly frustrated by the response from Lord Freud, on behalf of the Secretary of State,’ said Shayne Hembrow.
‘We understand the need for reform and the need to get to grips with public finances. We understand the need for change but not putting dogma before common sense and forcing disabled residents to downsize or continuously apply for discretionary housing benefit is an enormous waste of money and time. It makes much more sense to exempt these people from the removal of the spare room subsidy and thereby save the public purse millions.
‘I therefore call on all other social housing providers in Wales, and everyone who has an interest in this matter, to consider the findings of our report, and to themselves lobby for this deeply unfair policy decision to be revoked.’
Michael Halloran explains that even people who have been awarded a DHP this year have little or no security because they are not guaranteed to continue to receive it each year. ‘So these already vulnerable people are being asked to live within a position of financial insecurity, as well as all the other challenges they face,’ he says.
But the tide may, albeit slowly, be beginning to turn.
Tribunals around the country are starting to find in favour of disabled people who are challenging the rulings on the bedroom tax. In a recent case in Aberystwyth, District Judge Sarah Williams allowed an appeal against a county council decision to apply a two-bedroom reduction in housing benefits at an unnamed disabled man and his wife’s home, ruling that the application was ‘incompatible’ with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Case Study 1
Judith Parker, Cardiff
Judith Parker lives with her daughter Emma, 21, and son Luke, 17, in a four-bedroom bungalow that wales & west Housing purpose-built for her in the Caerau area of Cardiff 12 years ago.
Luke suffers from muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair and Emma has learning difficulties. Single mum Judith, 44, also had another child – Paul – who also suffered from muscular dystrophy and who passed away three years ago at the age of 21.
Since April 2013 and the introduction of the ‘bedroom tax’, Judith has been judged to be ‘under- occupying’ her home as the bedroom which once belonged to Paul is now not occupied.
‘It has hit us hard,’ said Judith. ‘I would move to somewhere smaller if I could, but where can I go to? There are no suitable bungalows in this area.’
Judith now says that she is having to watch what she spends ever more carefully thanks to the ‘bedroom tax’ which has seen her having to pay an extra £16.23 per week. ‘I’ve always had to watch our money,’ says Judith, ‘but now I think about what we spend every day more than ever.’
Her tenancy support officer originally took the view that it was not worth applying for a DHP as the local authority would be unlikely to award one. She is now reviewing this decision with Judith.
Case study 2
Jo from Wrexham
Jo moved into her two-bedroom home in Wrexham in December 2007 with her son Daniel, then aged 17. He had one bedroom, while Jo had the other. Since Daniel left home to cut his commute to work, Jo, who has multiple health problems, has been deemed to be under-occupying her home. Adaptations to her home have cost £35,000 in government grant money. She explained this in her request for a DHP at the end of March 2013 – and that the spare room was likely to be essential for an overnight carer or home dialysis in future but she was turned down for DHP as her income exceeded expenditure. After going through her income and expenditure again as she has several ‘above the norm’ expenses, her tenancy support officer will be helping her to put in a new DHP claim and asking for it to be backdated because of the hardship she has suffered. She has only been using the heating sparingly despite feeling the cold more because of her health and cannot afford repairs to her car and other essential items like her oven and washing machine. Since April 2013 she has been paying an additional £12.50 a week bedroom tax.
‘It has had a big impact on me,’ says Jo.‘I now have to think really hard about putting on the heating. Last year being able to afford to keep warm enough was not an issue – now, thanks to the bedroom tax, it is. It’s horrible.
‘I am losing my sight – there is no hope of a cure for me – and I need to know my surroundings if I am to continue to live independently. I dread to think what is ahead of me. I fear that I will be forced to leave this house – my home – and start again somewhere else. That absolutely terrifies me.’
The Wales & West report is available at www.wwha.co.uk