Charities Criticise Government Fund To Address LHA Rate Freeze

Charities have slammed a government fund intended to mitigate the worst effects of the Local Housing Allowance freeze, after it confirmed just £13.3m will be available next year. Recent research by Shelter revealed one in four families in a two-bedroom home must find an extra £100 a month or more to make up the shortfall in their rent due to the LHA rate freeze. Marc Francis, policy and campaigns director at anti-poverty charity Z2K, said: “In those parts of the country experiencing the sharpest rent rises, there is little or no benefit, leaving disabled and unemployed private tenants with an increasing shortfall between the rent they owe and the housing benefit they receive.” Read more on Inside Housing.

Charity Condemns Councils’ £30m In ‘Sweeteners’ To Private Landlords

An anti-poverty charity has attacked the millions of pounds in sweeteners paid by cash-strapped London boroughs to private landlords to persuade them to rent to council tenants. It has been revealed that officials paid nearly £30 million to landlords since 2012. The “one-off financial incentives” were revealed in Freedom of Information responses from 33 London local authorities to the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust. The charity said it showed boroughs were deploying “ever more desperate means to entice private landlords” as authorities compete with each other to secure accommodation. Landlords want the extra money over fears that some council tenants were more likely to default on their rent. Read more on the Evening Standard website.

Council Faces High Court Challenge over Crisis Payment Conditions

The High Court has given the go-ahead to a legal challenge that could prevent councils forcing people to join a work programme or move home as conditions of receiving housing crisis payment awards. Anti-poverty charity Zacchaeus 2000 Trust has been given permission to pursue a judicial review against Westminster Council for making receipt of discretionary housing payments (DHP) conditional on seeking work and searching for more affordable properties. Zacchaeus 2000 Trust says Westminster Council’s policy on deciding DHP claims for tenants affected by the £26,000-a-year total household benefit cap is unlawful. Read more on Inside Housing.

Legal Bid Fails to Stop Housing Benefit Reforms

The High Court has dismissed a claim for a judicial review of the government’s decision to limit housing benefit payments for tenants in the private rented sector.  Charity Zacchaeus 2000 Trust argued the government acted outside the law in the way it implemented the change, and that work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith failed to comply with legislation on equality.  But Justice Underwood ruled the government did have the power to introduce the changes to the way local housing allowance payments are calculated, and was not in breach of section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. He criticised the form of the department’s equality impact assessment, but said the problems did not go far enough to constitute a ‘legal flaw’.  Read more on Inside Housing.

Charity Launches Legal Challenge to Benefit Cuts

Changes to the way housing benefit payments are calculated will be challenged in the High Court by a London-based charity today (19 December).  Zacchaeus 2000 Trust is bringing a case against the DWP, arguing that linking payments to the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation is unlawful as it is ultra vires (outside of the power of the DWP) and it is in breach of the Equality Act 2012.  The CPI is a measure of inflation, which relates only to goods and services, and specifically discounts housing costs, meaning that the Government has severed the link between housing need and local rents irrevocably.  Read more on the Zacchaeus 2000 website.