Crisis and Resilience Fund - Housing payments policy

The Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) has been made available to the Council to support low-income households who encounter a financial shock and to support activity that builds individual and community financial resilience. This includes specified funding for housing support, called the Housing Payment element and replaces the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP).

Each year the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) allocates funding to County Councils for the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) scheme which consists of four strands and the County Council then distributes funding to Local Authorities who are responsible for the CRF Housing payment strand to enable awards to be paid.  

The Housing payment will closely replicate existing DHP guidelines and will adopt a phased transition over the 3-year funding period.  Ashfield District Council's policy will therefore remain the same and has been rebranded to reflect the new arrangements.

Following the abolition of Council Tax Benefit from April 2013, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) could no longer be made towards Council Tax Liability. A customer who is receiving Council Tax Support, with no rental liability (e.g. an owner occupier) is not eligible to apply for a Housing Payment.

A separate ‘Council Tax – Section 13a (1) (c) Council Tax Reductions Discretionary Discount Scheme’ exists and applications can be considered for this scheme. Any other separate hardship funding made available to the Council could also be considered for this purpose

Every claimant who is entitled to the minimum amount of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit and who has a shortfall is entitled to make a claim for help. The purpose of the scheme is to provide additional funds to benefit recipients who are suffering from financial hardship and are unable to meet their housing costs.

Housing costs are not defined in the regulations and this gives Ashfield District Council a broad discretion to interpret the term as they wish. In general, housing costs means rental liability. 

The purpose of this policy is to specify how Ashfield District Council’s Revenues and Benefits Section will operate the scheme and to indicate some factors that will be considered when deciding if a Housing Payment award can be made.

Each case will be treated strictly on its merits and all customers will be treated equally and fairly when the scheme is administered.

The Revenues and Benefits Section is committed to working with the local voluntary sector, social landlords and other interested parties within the district to maximise entitlement to all available state benefits and this will be reflected in the administration of the scheme.

The Revenues and Benefits Section will consider making a payment of a Housing Payment to claimants who meet the qualifying criteria. Before making an award the authority must be satisfied that the customer is entitled to: 

• Housing Benefit, or
• Universal Credit, and
• has a rental liability; and
• requires further financial assistance with housing costs.

This policy is not intended to define the specific situations of when we will or will not make a discretionary payment, to do so would make the policy too rigid and may prevent payments being made where there are exceptional or unusual circumstances. Payments are expected to be made to meet current needs rather than past debts.

The Revenues and Benefits Section has built up expertise and local knowledge which enables the authority to profile their budget to meet demand over the course of the year. 

The Revenues and Benefits Section will see through the operation of this policy to:

• Alleviate poverty. 
• Encourage and sustain the Authorities residents in employment. 
• Help those who are trying to help themselves. 
• Keep families together. 
• Prevent child poverty. 
• Support the vulnerable in the local community. 
• Help customers through a personal crisis / difficult event. 
• Support households that are returning to work after a period of unemployment and aid in managing their finances during the transition from coming off benefit and receiving wages and securing UC entitlement. 
• Support those who are in affordable housing but at risk of becoming homeless due to being unable to meet their full rent liability due to severe financial difficulties from the effects of the current economic climate. 
• To support foster carers who have a spare room for a potential foster child 
• To consider disabled people living in accommodation that has been substantially adapted for their needs.

The main objectives of Ashfield District Council’s Housing Payment Scheme reflect the objectives outlined in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance for Local Authorities.  The main objectives are aimed at:

• Preventing homelessness
• Keeping families together
• Supporting the vulnerable and elderly in sustaining tenancies
• Enabling people to secure new sustainable tenancies 
• Providing financial respite for people in short-term difficulty
• Incentivising people into and maintaining work
• Supporting people in education

The main features of the scheme are:

• The scheme is purely discretionary; a claimant does not have a statutory right to a payment.
• The amount that can be paid out by an Authority in any financial year is cash-limited by the Secretary of State. 
• The administration of the scheme is for the Revenues and Benefits Section to determine. 
• Housing Payments are not a payment of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit. However, the minimum amount of Housing Benefit or Universal 
  Credit must be in payment in the benefit week that a Housing Payment is awarded for. 

Housing Payments can be provided for:

• Rent officer restrictions such as Local Reference Rents (LRR), Single Room Rent (SRR) size criteria or when the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) does not meet the rent. 
• Reductions in Housing Benefit or Universal Credit entitlement following changes to the LHA rates. 
• Non-dependant deductions. 
• Income tapers.
• Prevention of loss of tenancy due to hardship - consideration can be given to backdating of the award if customer has demonstrated good cause. This will require evidence to be provided by the tenant where necessary 
• Help to secure a new sustainable tenancy

Securing new sustainable tenancies:

The intention of this category is to provide awards (normally one-off) to enable people to secure new sustainable tenancies either in or out of the Ashfield District.  Awards would only be considered where at present the Housing Benefit payable does not cover the individual’s liability for reasons such as under occupancy.

The awards within this category are made up as follows:

• Removal costs:
  The reasonable costs of moving to a more suitable sized accommodation can be met by a Housing Payment. Removal costs would be paid to the customer following proof of removal costs by way of receipt or invoice.
• Deposits:
  Deposits paid in order to help individual’s secure new sustainable tenancies. This would be a maximum of one months’ rent and would only be payable if this payment enabled the tenant to move to sustainable accommodation (correct number of bedrooms for household composition).
• Rent in advance:
  Some tenancies require one months’ rent in advance (sometimes 4 weeks rent) on top of a deposit.  A maximum of one months’ rent in advance could be paid by Housing Payment in order to help an individual secure new sustainable tenancy in a smaller property (correct number of bedrooms for household composition).

Rent deposits and rent upfront will be paid as a lump sum directly to the new Landlord / Agent.

In exceptional circumstances payment of Housing payments for rent deposits and rent in advance can be made even where it has not been possible for the tenant to move into the most affordable accommodation, for example, when someone is fleeing their home due to domestic violence and needs to seek a place of safety such as a refuge.

On 2 homes:

The regulations permit a person to receive help through an award for the rent due on a property they have moved into when treated as temporarily absent from their home where the claimant has moved due to domestic violence. If the customer is liable for the rent on both properties and in both cases there is a shortfall, an award could be awarded in respect of both properties subject to the weekly limit on each property. 

• If the claimant is liable for payments on one dwelling but is having to pay rent on 2, a weekly award could be made to assist with the temporary accommodation up to the level of the weekly eligible rent on the dwelling from which they are temporarily absent. 
• Rent shortfalls to prevent a household becoming homeless whilst the Housing Section explores alternative options. 
• Foster carers including those between placements. 
• Disabled people subject to under-occupancy living in accommodation that has been substantially adapted for their needs.

In addition to the above Housing Payments can be used to provide support to customers affected by some of the key welfare reforms including:

• Reductions in Housing Benefit or Universal Credit where the benefit cap has been applied. 
• Reductions in Housing Benefit or Universal Credit for under-occupation in the social rented sector. 
• Reductions in Housing Benefit or Universal Credit as a result of LHA restrictions to the shared room rate for those customers who have not reached 35 years.

Housing Payments cannot be used for help with:

• Ineligible service charges. 
• Increases in rent due to outstanding rent arrears 
• Shortfalls in Council Tax Support.
• Rent, when the person is getting Council Tax support but not HB or help with housing costs in UC.
• Certain sanctions and reductions in benefit.
• Benefit suspensions  
• Shortfalls caused by overpayment recovery. 

In most cases, the resident who claims a Housing payment will be the person entitled to HB or UC Housing costs. The Council may also accept claims from appointees or another person acting on the resident’s behalf such as a relative or social worker. The applicant should countersign the claim whenever this is reasonably possible. The claim must be made to Ashfield District Council by means of an online form or by contacting staff within the Revenues and Benefits Team who will assist with an application.

The Revenues and Benefits Section may request any reasonable evidence in support of an application for a Housing payment. The claimant will be asked to provide the evidence within one month of such a request, although this will be extended in appropriate circumstances. Sufficient evidence will need to be obtained to enable the decision maker to compare income against expenses to identify where there is a shortfall.

If the claimant is unable to or does not provide the required evidence, the Revenues and Benefits Section will still consider the application and will in any event consider any other available evidence including that held on the Housing Benefit file. The department reserves the right to verify any information or evidence provided by the claimant in appropriate circumstances.

Period of award

The Revenues and Benefits Section considers that the scheme should be seen as a short-term fund to assist financial hardship. It is not and should not be considered as a way around any current or future entitlement reductions set out within legislation. In all cases, the Revenues and Benefits Section will decide the length of time for which a Housing payment will be awarded on the basis of the evidence supplied and the facts known.

The start date of an award will normally be:

1. The Monday after the written claim form for a Housing payment is received or initial request made to the Benefits Department; or 
2. The date on which entitlement to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit commenced (providing the application form is received within one calendar month of the claim for Housing Benefit or Universal Credit being decided), whichever is the most appropriate.

The Revenues and Benefits Section cannot award a Housing payment for any period outside an existing Housing Benefit or Universal Credit period granted under the Housing Benefit or Universal Credit statutory schemes.

• The minimum period for which the Revenues and Benefits Section will allow an award is one week. 
• The Revenues and Benefits Section will consider any reasonable request for backdating an award of a Housing payment but such consideration will usually be limited to the current financial year.

Backdating an award

The Revenues and Benefits Section will look at each claim on its own merits when deciding whether or not to backdate a claim. Unlike Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, there are no rules on backdating, but the Revenues and Benefits Section will act consistently when considering requests for backdating.

All applications will be considered by a Revenues and Benefits Officer in the first instance and generally based on the household income and expenditure. 

Essentially the Council will compare the household income and expenditure to see whether the customer needs further financial assistance to meet their housing costs. Each decision reached is “discretionary” and is not governed by strict regulations, although the Council will ensure that all decisions made are impartial and reasonable. 

Please note that the regulations regarding the treatment of income in Housing Benefit and Universal Credit claims do not apply in the decision making process. Therefore, we may decide to count income into a calculation that might have disregarded in the Housing Benefit or Universal Credit assessment e.g., Child Benefit, Maintenance payments and Disability Allowance received by any member of the household. (As any additional expenditure associated with their disability will have been considered in their outgoings). 

Similarly, we can use our discretion when determining if the expenses are reasonable and we have established maximum allowable amounts of expenditure that are dependent on household composition, any decisions made about a person’s expenditure will be done on an individual basis and may require some additional clarification.

In deciding whether to award a Housing payment, the Revenues and Benefits Section will consider: 

• The shortfall between Housing Benefit or Universal Credit and the rental liability. 
• Any steps taken by the claimant to reduce their rental liability. 
• The medical circumstance of the claimant; their partner and any dependents and any other occupants of the same household. Disability related benefits are intended to be used to help pay for the extra costs of disability; and as such money might already be committed to other liability such a Mobility schemes, provision of care etc. 
• The income and expenditure of the claimant, their partner and any dependents or other occupants of the claimant’s home. 
• Any savings or capital that might be held by the claimant or their family. 
• The level of indebtedness of the claimant and their family’s circumstances. 
• The amount available in the budget at the time of the application. 
• The possible impact on the Council of not making such an award, e.g. pressure on priority homeless accommodation. 
• Any other special circumstances brought to the attention of the Revenues and Benefits Section.

Capital

Where the customer holds capital, the officer must use their discretion to decide whether the level of capital warrants refusing the customers application. The authority does not normally make an award if the customer has more than £1000 in savings. However, consideration should be given to the fact that the capital may be reserved for a reasonable future expense, such as a bond or rent in advance in respect of cheaper accommodation.

Turning down affordable accommodation

Under normal circumstances, where a customer has previously refused the allocation of more suitable affordable accommodation, an award will not be paid.

Expenditure

When considering expenditure the Revenues and Benefits Section will consider ‘expenditure of luxury items’. These Items should be considered on an individual case basis, the customer may not be able to dispose of a luxury item quickly, or they may have good reason for requiring the item. However, where an item is clearly unnecessary we should not include the item as part of the customer’s expenditure.

For example: If the customer has SKY TV they may be tied to a 12-month contract for the package but could easily cancel any additional channels immediately. If this is possible, but they simply refuse to do this (with no good reason) we will consider a Housing payment reduction for the additional channels.

When awarding a Housing payment to assist the customer with securing a new tenancy, the authority will consider the following:

• The authority will include information about the legal obligations for landlords to protect any deposit paid in a Government approved tenancy deposit protection scheme. Compliance with this requirement will help reduce the need for future help with deposits. 
• Establish if the customer is due to have a deposit in respect of their exiting tenancy returned to them. 
• Making payment to the landlord rather than the customer where applicable.

The Revenues and Benefits Section will decide how much to award based on all of the customer’s circumstances. This may be an amount below the difference between the rent liability and the Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing payment. An award of a Housing payment does not guarantee that a further award will be made at a later date, even if the claimant’s circumstances have not changed.

Careful consideration may be required to determine how best to target the funding to priority groups, whilst ensuring that each case is considered on its own merits.

• Families with children at a critical point in their education. 
• Young people leaving local authority care. 
• Foster carers, including those between placements: foster children are not included in the Housing Benefit assessment but neither is the income from foster allowances; as the Government values the work done by foster carers.
  Whilst some carers may be able to make up the shortfall using some of their allowance, or by other means, some thought should be given to supporting foster carers who are deemed to be under-occupying their accommodation because they have rooms occupied by foster children, or being kept available for future placements.
  The Council should bear in mind that foster carers should not be financially penalised because of their foster caring role. 
• People going through the approval process to become foster carers who may need to show that they have a spare room to be approved.
  If a Housing payment was awarded on this basis, it would be up to the claimant to inform the Revenues and Benefits Section of a change of circumstances if, for example, they were not subsequently approved. 
• Families with kinship care arrangements.
  Children who go into the care of family and friends are often extremely vulnerable and will usually benefit from the stability of remaining in a familiar area and continuing to attend their local school. 
• Families with a child temporarily in care but who is expected to return home. 
• What constitutes temporary will be at the authority’s discretion. 
• Families with a social services intervention, for example highly dependent adults, children at risk or involvement in a family intervention project. 
• People who have had to flee domestic violence or have moved because of the threat of violence in another area. 
• Where someone in the household is expecting a baby (including those currently in shared accommodation or subject to an under-occupation reduction). 
• Ex-homeless people being supported to settle in the community. 
• People with health or medical problems who need access to local medical services or support that might not be available elsewhere. 
• People with disabilities who need, or have had, significant adaptations made to their property, or where they are living in a property particularly suited to their needs. 
• Where the claimant or someone in the household has a disability which requires them to have a larger property than would usually be the case for the size of their household due to, for example, a medical condition or where a child has a particular disability that might mean they are unable to share a bedroom.
• People with disabilities who receive informal care and support in their current neighbourhood from family and friends which would not be available in a new area.
  In this respect the authority may also consider families who have a child with a disability who rely heavily on local support networks. 
• Households with disabled children who require an overnight carer. 
• The elderly who have lived in the area for a long period of time and would find it difficult to establish support networks in a new area. 
• People who need to live near their jobs because they work unsocial hours or split shifts; or where moving home may mean living in an area where public transport would be inadequate to enable them to sustain their current job.

The Revenues and Benefits Section will need to revise an award of a Housing payment where the claimant’s circumstances have materially changed. 

The Revenues and Benefits Section will decide the most appropriate person to pay based upon the circumstances of each case. This could include paying: 

• The claimant
• Their partner 
• An appointee.
• Their landlord (or an agent of the landlord)
• Any third party to whom it might be most appropriate to make payment. 

The Revenues and Benefits Section will pay an award by the most appropriate means available in each case.

• By electronic transfer (e.g. BACS)
• By crediting the claimant’s rent account if renting from the Council. 

Payment frequency will normally be made in line with how the customer’s Housing Benefit or Universal Credit is paid to them.

Weekly payments would only apply where Universal Credit payments are paid directly to a Council Tenant’s rent account under a managed rent payment arrangement. 

The Revenues and Benefits Section will inform the claimant of the outcome of their application within 14 days of receipt of all of the information being received.

Where the application is unsuccessful, the Revenues and Benefits Section will set out the reasons why this decision was made and explain the right of review. Where the application is successful, the Revenues and Benefits Section will advise: 

• The weekly amount of Housing Payment awarded. 
• The period of the award. 
• How, when to whom the award will be paid. 
• The requirement to report a change in circumstances. 

Where customers have been identified as struggling to manage their financial affairs, they will be signposted to the Citizens Advice Bureau for independent advice.

Where customers are experiencing a shortfall in their housing costs due to restrictions implemented as part of the welfare reforms and associated with their accommodation, their details will be passed to Ashfield District Council’s Housing Service. They will be able to provide further advice and possibly be able to help the customer find a more suitable place to live or assist the customer in keeping their current home.

Where a request for payments has been refused, it is not expected that repeat requests will be considered unless the customer can demonstrate that their situation has worsened significantly or a substantial period of time has elapsed. 

Housing payments are not payments of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit and therefore are not subject to the statutory appeals mechanism. 

The Revenues and Benefits Section will operate the following process for dealing with a decision about a refusal to award a Housing payment, a decision to award a reduced amount of Housing payment, a decision not to backdate a Housing payment or a decision that there has been an overpayment of a Housing payment. 

• A claimant (or their appointee) who disagrees with a decision may dispute the decision. A request must be made in writing to the Revenues and Benefits Section within one calendar month of the written decision about the Housing payment being issued to the claimant. 
• The Senior Officer will then review the decision and all of the evidence held and revise the decision if appropriate. If the decision is not revised then they will make a recommendation to the Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits and provide all appropriate information surrounding the recommendation. 
• The case will be reviewed by the Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits. If the recommendation is accepted to refuse the award of Housing payment the Senior Officer will notify the claimant of their decision in writing, setting out the reasons for their decision. 
• This decision is final and binding and may only be challenged via the judicial review process or by complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman if there is an allegation of maladministration. 
• In exceptional circumstances the above time period may be extended. 

Housing payments may be recovered either fraudulently or otherwise. An award is also recoverable if it was paid as a result of an error made when the claim was determined.

The Revenues and Benefits Section cannot recover Housing payments from ongoing Housing Benefit or Universal Credit entitlement. Therefore, the only method of recovery if a Housing payment is overpaid is to request repayment of the debt from the customer by invoice.

The Revenues and Benefits Section is committed to the fight against fraud in all its forms.

A claimant who tried to fraudulently claim a Housing Payment by falsely declaring their circumstances, providing a false statement or evidence in support of their application, may have committed an offence under the Theft Act 1968.

Where the Revenues and Benefits Section suspects that such a fraud may have occurred, the matter will be investigated as appropriate and this may lead to criminal proceedings being instigated.

The Council also reserves the right to use any details submitted by person (s) to check against national records and databases to highlight any potentially fraudulent activity.

This policy will be reviewed prior to the commencement of each new financial year.

A review may also take place at any time in the event of significant changes in legislation or funding which impact on the policy.