Funding Boost For Accessible Homes

Housing and homelessness minister, Heather Wheeler, has announced an extra £42m funding for local housing authorities to make a range of adaptations to a disabled or elderly person’s home. Some of these changes are low cost but can make a big difference to the person’s quality of life such as grab rails which can be installed for as little as £30 but can prevent a serious fall. Other changes include:

·         ramps and stair lifts

·         widening of doors

·         level access showers and raised toilets

·         accessible gardens

·         home extensions which can include the construction of downstairs bedrooms and bathrooms

Read more on 24housing.

http://www.24housing.co.uk/news/funding-boost-for-accessible-homes/

Funds To Improve Housing For People With Learning Disabilities

People with learning disabilities will benefit from £25 million of funding to help them live more independently in their own homes. The fund aims to improve their quality of life by giving them independence, and helping them feel more included in their local community. The successful bids of the £25 million housing and technology fund have been announced by Health Minister David Mowat. The local authority projects will focus on adapting existing housing, creating new accommodation and giving people support so they have more independence and choice. Read more on the Department of Health website.

Chronic Lack Of Accessible Housing Prompts Inquiry

A major new inquiry will investigate the chronic lack of accessible and adaptable housing available for disabled people in Britain. Following research which found that approximately 1.8 million disabled people require suitable housing and approximately 300,000 do not have the adaptations they need in their existing homes, the Equality and Human Right Commission will investigate the provision of accessible and adaptable housing, and the effect it has on disabled people’s right to live independently. The terms of reference for the inquiry have been published today, while calls for evidence will begin in early January. The inquiry will report in early 2018. Read more on the EHRC website.

Disability Grants 'Not Always Meeting Need'

Government grants to help people adapt their homes to live more independently are not always allocated to meet need, a report has concluded. Around 40,000 people a year, the majority over 60 years of age, receive Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) to pay for changes to their homes such as the installation of stairlifts, level access showers and ramps. However, a report commissioned by the national body for DFGs and home improvement agencies, Foundations, said awareness of the grants is low, its provision is fragmented and too often older and disabled people are forced to find solutions on their own. Download a copy of the report from the Foundations website.

RTB: HA Tenants To Be Allowed To Use Discount Elsewhere In The Country

Housing association tenants who live in specially designed homes or rural areas will receive a right-to-buy discount elsewhere in the country. The expansion of right-to-buy to housing association stock will give 1.3 million more families the opportunity to purchase their homes at a discount of up to £103,900 in London and £77,900 outside of the capital. To protect the number of homes that housing associations have adapted or own in rural areas, residents living in them will be offered what has been coined a “portable discount”.  This means a rural tenant will be able to use the money to buy a house in an area with more available stock, most likely a city, while those in an adapted home could buy a similar dwelling where more of them have been built.  Read more on the Independent website.

The Long Wait for a Home — Councils Are Failing Disabled People

Leonard Cheshire Disability has published new research into the long wait that many disabled people face when they desperately need adaptations to their homes. The report, The Long Wait for a Home, reveals that, shockingly, these delays are the result of breaches in the law by local councils. Last year, two councils in three (62%) failed to pay for agreed adaptations at least once within the one-year time limit set out in the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. Download a copy of the report from the Leonard Cheshire Disability website.

Disabled Couple Wins Watershed Case on Housing Payments

Councils may have to review their emergency housing payment policies after a High Court ruled that routinely considering disability benefit when calculating discretionary housing payments is unlawful. The High Court has quashed Sandwell Council’s decision to lower its discretionary housing payment (DHP) award to a bedroom-tax hit couple because they received disability living allowance (DLA). In September 2013, the council granted a lower DHP award to a disabled couple because it calculated their DLA as part of their income when they applied for help to cover the bedroom tax. The couple, who live in a three bedroomed specially adapted property, took a judicial review against the local authority in October 2013, arguing that its decision was discriminatory. Read more on Inside Housing.

Lack of Suitable Housing Costs NHS Millions

Unsuitable housing is leaving thousands of older people facing unnecessary delays in being discharged from hospital, according to new analysis by Age UK. Official figures show that patients who need home adaptations, such as grab rails or ramps fitted at home, are having to wait for an extra 27 days on average– more than 40,000 days in total – costing an estimated £11.2 million per year in delayed discharges. In its new report ‘Housing in Later Life’, Age UK is calling on the Government to ensure that all new homes are built to the lifetime homes standard so they can be easily adapted as people age. Read more and download a copy of the report on the Age UK website.

'Bedroom Tax': Derby's Disabled Devastated As Nine Homes Available For 170

More than 170 homes lived in by disabled people in Derby are being hit by the so-called bedroom tax, despite the property being specially adapted. And, if tenants did want to move out, there are currently only nine modified properties available to them in the city. The shock statistics come as one MS sufferer, who uses a wheelchair, told of her anguish after being put on a list to move from a three-bedroomed bungalow affected by the charge. Read more on the Derby Telegraph website.

Landmark Housing Benefit Ruling Provides Boost for Disabled People

Local authorities should now use a wider interpretation of the term 'adapt the dwelling' when deciding housing benefit allocations for disabled people, the Court of Appeal has ruled. Previously, the meaning of the word 'adapt' in HB cases related solely to changes to the fabric or structure of the property. However, in the recent case R v. LB Lewisham and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Court of Appeal decided that the term could now also include works such as redecoration or carpeting, which had previously fallen outside the scope of the definition. Read more on 24dash.

Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 12 February 2014, Official Report, column 652W, on housing benefit, whether local authorities will continue to decide on applications for reimbursement of service charging on adaptation following the full introduction of universal credit. 

Kris Hopkins: Decisions on charging for maintenance costs following housing adaptations funded by the disabled facilities grant are for local authorities. Those decisions will continue to be made by local authorities following the introduction of universal credit.

Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how his Department expects the cost of installing, maintaining and repairing special equipment and adaptations for housing will be met after universal credit replaces housing benefit

Kris Hopkins [holding answer 6 February 2014]: The Disabled Facilities Grant, which funds over 40,000 adaptations annually, will continue to be available to those who qualify. My Department secured £725 million for the grant in the 2010 spending review for the period 2011-12 to 2014-15 and over the last two years the Government has invested a further £60 million. In the 2015-16 spending round, the Government announced that the initial grant allocation will increase by 19% to £220 million.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of the discretionary housing payment allocation for 2013-14 has been targeted at people who have wheelchair-standard properties.  

Esther McVey: In 2013-14 the Government allocated an additional £25 million to the discretionary housing payment budget, which was specifically aimed at helping disabled people who live in significantly adapted accommodation.

Bedroom Tax Will Waste £234MILLION If Disabled Tenants Forced To Move

Taxpayers will see an estimated £234million wasted if the Bedroom Tax forces disabled tenants to move from special homes. That is nearly HALF the £500million the Government hoped to save this year with the hated rules. Minister for Disabled People Esther McVey admitted: “We ­estimate around 35,000 claimants affected by removal of spare room subsidy live in significantly adapted accommodation.” An average of £6,700 has already been spent on making their homes suitable. If they have to move to smaller properties even more cash will have to be spent adapting those. Read more on the Sunday People website.

Universal Credit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many households will lose eligibility for the reimbursement for costs of servicing essential home adaptations under universal credit.  

Kris Hopkins: My Department has made consequential amendments to the Housing Renewal Grant Regulations (1996) to ensure that following the introduction of universal credit anyone who would be entitled to home adaptations continues to remain eligible.

Of Bedrooms That Aren’t

A First Tier Tribunal decision on a bedroom tax appeal has overturned the landlord’s assertions on bedroom numbers.  The decision accepts that it is reasonable for the benefit authority to rely on the landlord’s description of the property. But, significantly, the landlord’s description is not determinative. The FTT is quite happy to determine whether a ‘bedroom’ as described by the landlord actually is a bedroom, and to replace the landlord’s description of the property with its own. In this instance, from 3 bedrooms to one.  While this is only an FTT decision, and not binding at all, the approach does raise the interesting prospect of, for example, those with adapted properties where a bedroom has been physically changed in purpose, or those with small box rooms, making successful appeals which overturn the landlord’s own designation of bedrooms.  Read more on the Nearly Legal blog.

Council failed to properly accommodate disabled tenant while trying to save money

A council has been slammed by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) for leaving a disabled man in unsuitable accommodation for three years - because it wanted to save money. The LGO began an investigation after a complaint was made in November 2010 that Daventry District Council failed to deal properly with the man’s application to adapt his property. The changes were needed to create a downstairs bedroom for the complainant, who suffers with a degenerative medical condition and uses a wheelchair. The application met all the criteria for funding but because the estimated cost was in excess of the statutory maximum grant of £30,000, Daventry chose an alternative scheme through Northamptonshire County Council. The scheme could have paid for the work at no cost to the council but the application was delayed and was ultimately unsuccessful. The LGO found that the council should have considered making a discretionary grant to cover the shortfall in the initial scheme rather than pursuing the no-cost option for an unacceptable length of time. 

UC Assessments Are a Recipe for Confusion for Leaseholders

As the roll out of universal credit nears, the DWP has begun distributing a range of guidance notes on how various assessments will be made, such as on how the universal credit will be calculated for payments on service charges where home owners are on a long lease.  Universal credit will not be paid for all service charges, only those that are deemed eligible.  The guidance notes suggest that the managing agents running the service element will be the best people to make these calculations. Among the examples given for ineligible service charges are the installation and maintenance of disability equipment and adaptations, individual emergency alarm systems, and communal recreation areas.  Having gleaned the information from the individual managing agent about these service charges, the DWP assessment officer then has to go on to consider other factors in order to decide how much the recipient of the benefit will get for this. Read more on the Guardian website.

New Law Will Put Adaptations at Risk

Housing departments will be given sole responsibility for stumping up the cash to pay for adaptations services, under proposals in the draft Care and Support Bill. In a move that sector experts warn will undermine the government’s own attempts to integrate housing and social care, new legislation is threatening the funding of existing adaptation services. Around £180 million a year from the government in disabled facilities grant is traditionally topped up by various council pots, including social services money in the form of grants or loans to meet the costs of adaptations. As a result of the proposal, however, housing departments would have to shoulder the full cost of making adaptations to older and disabled people’s homes because shared funding would be restricted.  Read more on Inside Housing.

Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answers

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate he has made of the number of local authority tenants in England and Wales who will be affected by his proposed changes to housing benefit.

Steve Webb: DWP estimate that the number of social rented sector tenants (which includes both local authority and housing association tenants) in England and Wales that will be affected by the under occupancy measure will be 580,000.

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what transitional measures are in place to assist individuals likely to be adversely affected by proposed changes to rules on occupancy for housing benefit.

Steve Webb: The size criteria rules that apply in the private rented sector will be extended to those who are under-occupying in the social rented sector from 1 April 2013.  These rules will apply to both new and existing housing benefit claimants from this date.  An additional £30 million has been given to the discretionary housing payment fund to specifically help disabled people living in specially adapted accommodation and foster carers who have been affected by this measure.

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what measures are in place to assist cohabiting couples who are required to sleep in separate bedrooms and who may potentially be affected by the proposed under-occupancy penalty.

Steve Webb: Cohabiting couples are not exempt from the under-occupancy charge, whether or not they sleep in the same bedroom. The discretionary housing payment scheme may be available to help people affected by this measure but this is dependent upon individual circumstances.

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the costs to the public purse of tenants moving from social housing to private sector housing but who may still qualify for housing benefit

Steve Webb: This information is not available.  Taxpayers are currently paying for approaching a million spare bedrooms in the social housing sector while families are living in overcrowded conditions while waiting to be re-housed.