I wrote last week about relief among housing experts that the Department for Work and Pensions had chosen to delay the introduction of new caps on housing benefit for vulnerable tenants.
It seems I spoke too soon: the relief was short-lived.
While the rule pegging the cost of supported accommodation to Local Housing Allowance levels will indeed not now be brought in until 2019, the Government has decided that when it does come it will penalise more people.
The intention is that housing benefit should not pay higher rents than a set figure based on average local rents in a given area.
The Government says LHA will be a fairer and clearer way of taking account of how much housing benefit people should get.
But because it is capped, it will leave those in more expensive accommodation with a potentially major shortfall in their rent. This particularly affects tenants who rely on some kind of additional housing support - because they stay in a domestic violence refuge, say, or in housing which offers additional services because tenants have learning disabilities, or dementia.
It is expected to leave some people facing shortfalls of hundreds of pounds a week, leading to headaches for landlords and arrears and potential eviction for vulnerable tenants.
But everyone thought the April 2019 introduction would only affect new tenants. Now the Government has clarified that those currently in supported accommodation will also be included in the LHA cap, meaning five times more people will be affected than had been thought.
The Scottish Federation has branded the DWP as a “thoughtless Dr. Jekyll and cruel Mr. Hyde”, over the repeated changes to the policy.
Mary Taylor, Chief Executive of the SFHA - who announced her retirement last week - shows no signs of going quietly. "
“Last week, we had the DWP as Dr Jekyll: none too thoughtful but at least honestly trying to fix the abominable mess of its own creation. This week we have it as Mr Hyde," she said. " Not content with creating instability, the DWP has thought fit to cruelly pull the rug from under the people most at need of help, not harm."
As before, this problem will ultimately land at the door of the Scottish Government, which will take over funding for such services before the change comes in, but potentially without sufficient resources to fix it.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said:
“It’s completely misleading to suggest people will see a shortfall – this new funding model will protect the supported accommodation sector from the LHA cap. Housing benefit will be focussed on housing costs, while new devolved funding will pay for the extra services. We hugely value the role played by supported accommodation providers, which is why we have taken this action to secure its long-term future.”
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