Friday, 4 April 2014

Temporary Housing Funding Cut

Cuts to the funding of council-owned temporary accommodation will cost local authorities across Britain tens of millions of pounds. Currently, if councils use their own housing stock as temporary housing, they pay for the accommodation themselves and claim the money back from the DWP through what is known as a rent ‘rebate’ system.  However, a circular recently released by the DWP outlined that under universal credit, the amount councils can claim will be restricted to the rate of local housing allowance plus £45 per week. Temporary accommodation owned by private providers and housing associations is already limited to similar restrictions. Councils have said this doesn’t take furnishing and maintenance costs into account. Download a copy of the circular from the GovUK website.

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