Terms & Conditions

[Anonymous]

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/1736/introduction/made

Regulations have now been laid before Parliament

[Anonymous]

And so we start again!

[mharrison]

I cannot see any exemption for those individuals who suffer mental health problems. I suppose they will have to cause a criminal offence, get arrested, imprisoned then become an ex-offender before their risk is recognised.

[Anonymous]

[quote=mharrison]I cannot see any exemption for those individuals who suffer mental health problems. I suppose they will have to cause a criminal offence, get arrested, imprisoned then become an ex-offender before their risk is recognised.[/quote]

Maybe they will get better accommodation if they get arrested?

[John Boxall]

Be a bit like that man in the USA who carried out an armed robbery so he could get medical treatment

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the god of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and—and in short you are for ever floored.

Wilkins Micawber, Ch12 David Copperfield

[guy]

Yes he was exercising his constitutional right to bear arms……so they could inject him :bigsmile:

[RobBox]

Mike posted this on another thread

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/care/-homeless-granted-shared-room-rate-exemption/6516765.article

How are we going to know if someone has spent 3 months in a hostel over the last four or five years and also received the required support to get re-housed. Do they get a badge or a book to be stamped?? :quest:

[nickkeogh]

We can ask the claimant to name any hostels they have ever stayed in and contact the hostels directly to confirm dates stayed until the 3 month period has been reached. For the vast majority this shouldn’t be too much of a problem if in the same LA as most will have been in receipt of HB so can use existing HB records. Re the required support proviso;- my guess is that this will end up being a ticky box exercise done by someone in homeless section.

[beth_daly]

So much for simplifying everything!!! J)

Will the next special interest group step up please……

[michaelh]

I am a 32 year old man, married with two children aged 6 and 12. I earn a salary in the region of £35,000 per annum. In December 2011 I am made redundant, unfortunately, where I live my expertise in what I do is not required. I am finding it extremely difficult to find a job, I start drinking heavily to ease the pain, the strain on my marriage is immense, the children are starting to suffer as a result of the arguments with my dear wife.

My wife decides after Christmas that enough is enough and I am asked to leave the family home. For the good of the Children I do this. I secure accommodation which is a three bedroom terraced house, I need this space so my children are able to stay with their father at weekends and during holidays. My tenancy at the new address starts on 10/01/12 and the rent charged is £500 pcm(going rate where I live). I also sign on for JSA as the little savings I had have run out, I couldn’t afford the rent when I took on the tenancy so I am not protected for the first 13 weeks.

So as I am under 35 does this mean that I will only qualify for the shared room rate of LHA? If so, does not seem that these types of scenarios have been considered at all by the policy makers.

P.S. I am not the man in the above storry, I made it up… :((

[Clive_Buckman]

So, let me make sure I understand this correctly… We now need to contact all our single 25-35 year olds, in privatly rented self-containined accommodation (unless they’re on DLA (CC) at the higher or middle rate) and ask them if they’ve ever lived in a homeless hostel and if so to provide details of the periods concerned. If they haven’t spent 3 months in such a hostel, or they have but weren’t assisted to find their present home through homeless services, we need to ask them if thay are sex offenders or violent criminals. Obviously we will need them to provide proof of this. If such proof isn’t forthcoming we cut their benefit sometime next year and so they become homeless and perhaps finish up doing a 3 month stint in a homeless hostel, at which point we can pay them enough HB to live in a self-contained flat again. Or possibly they resist the bailiffs violently and are convicted for GBH, in which occassion they don’t have to spend time in a hostel(although they may be given other “accommodation”).

[nickkeogh]

[quote=michaelh]So as I am under 35 does this mean that I will only qualify for the shared room rate of LHA? If so, does not seem that these types of scenarios have been considered at all by the policy makers.
[/quote]

It was raised but the scenario was deemed as too rare an occurence for policy change and that DHPs are there for such eventualities.

[Anonymous]

The SSAC concerns, as are the responses to them, are worth a read.

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/other/9780108510915/9780108510915.pdf

[michaelh]

[quote=nickkeogh][quote=michaelh]So as I am under 35 does this mean that I will only qualify for the shared room rate of LHA? If so, does not seem that these types of scenarios have been considered at all by the policy makers.
[/quote]

It was raised but the scenario was deemed as too rare an occurence for policy change and that DHPs are there for such eventualities.[/quote]

Ahh, the good old DHP, never lets any body down eh! Thanks Nick, I was starting to get a bit worried….

[Anonymous]

[quote]
27. The Government’s view is that discretionary housing payments are the right approach to supporting those in more vulnerable situations who do not meet the qualifying conditions for the existing exemptions from the shared accommodation rate. And as the Committee itself acknowledges, local decision making that is based on a well-informed understanding of local conditions and the circumstances of individual claimants can be an effective way of allocating additional support.[/quote]

Its a shame this same local knowledge will disappear with the introduction of Universal Credit…

[Author]

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