Terms & Conditions

[Anonymous]

I have had several support providers that are no longer including support charges when they provide their breakdown of their Apr 06 rent increase because they are being paid directly by supporting people. Do we still need to enter the support charges onto our system as some providers have queried why we are asking for this element when hb will not cover it ? I presume the rent service still need to know the value of the charges??

[Andy Simpson]

I’m no longer responsible for co-ordinating support charges at my LA but having spoken to the colleague who took over from me he has confirmed that some providers are not including the charges in their rent increases.

My opinion is that they must be included as they are charged to the tenant and form part of the tenants rent. If the charges are not included in the tenancy agreement then I think your SP team might be interested in saving some money.

To my mind (from what we’ve seen here) there is a potential that they don’t want you to see the charges for support because they are transferring part of the cost back to HB – if you don’t know what the charge is how can you question it?

[Anonymous]

Opinion here from a support provider.

Don’t think it is quite as straight forward as Andy suggests.

Two sorts of supporting people contracts;

1) Block Gross contracts for short term services eg a hostel. Grant is a fixed amount payable to provider irrespective of occupancy levels and no liabilty for the tenant to pay so shouldn’t be part of the tenancy agreement.

2) Subsidy contracts in permanent accommodation eg sheltered housing. SP grant is means tested therefore tenant could be liable, and paid according to occupancy. Some providers have kept support in the tenancy agreement, others have moved support costs in to a separate support agreement.

I’ve got the guidance issued to providers prior to SP on this. PM me if you’d like a copy.

[Author]

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