Introduction

  1. In this series, consisting of two short articles, we are going to consider the support criteria and what amounts to support for the purposes of claiming the enhanced level of Housing Benefit (“HB”) for those residents living in exempt accommodation.

The Criterion

  1. In order to become a provider of exempt accommodation, the would-be provider must meet the criteria laid down in the definition of “exempt accommodation” in paragraph 4(10) of Schedule 3 of the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2006 which reads as follows:

“.... accommodation which is .... provided by a non-metropolitan county council in England within the meaning of section 1 of the Local Government Act 1972, a housing association, a registered charity or voluntary organisation where that body or a person acting on its behalf also provides the claimant with care, support or supervision.”

  1. As stated above, there are two key criterion to meet:

(a) The “landlord criteria” - that an organisation is an appropriate body (i.e. a housing association, a registered charity or a voluntary organisation); and (b) The “support criteria” - that the appropriate body, or a person acting on its behalf, also provides the claimant with care, support or supervision.

What is “support” for those claiming the enhanced HB?

  1. The terms care, support and supervision are not defined in the regulations, so they need to take their ordinary meaning. For the purposes of this article, we are considering the term “support” and a helpful starting point is to consider some general propositions that have been laid down in caselaw which explain what support means:

i) The landlord or provider of support need not be the sole or main provider of support, as long as the care it is providing is more than minimal: R(H) 7/07 paras 21, 23.

ii) A satisfactory test for determining whether more than a minimal amount of support is provided is to ask whether the support provided was likely to make a real difference to the claimant’s ability to live in the property: Bristol City Council v AW [2009] UKUT 109 (AAC) (CH/200/2009) para 31.

iii) The word "support", in the context of the definition of exempt accommodation, in my judgment connotes the giving of advice and assistance to a claimant in coping with the practicalities of his life, and in particular his occupation of the property. I do not think that it is confined to counselling, advising, encouraging etc. the claimant: Chorley BC v IT [2009] UKUT 107 (AAC) (CH/150/2007), para 71:

iv) If there is a real prospect of the claimant actually using the service, support which is available to a claimant in his area but which is not actually provided to a claimant may count: R(H) 4/09 para 21-23.

v) Carrying out adaptations which will materially improve the tenant’s sense of wellbeing within the property can amount to “support”: Chorley BC paras 81-82, 97.

How is the support assessed?

  1. Throughout the lifetime of a claim for the enhanced level of HB, a local authority can review an individual’s claim to determine a person’s entitlement to, or continuing entitlement to, HB (see regulation 86 of The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006). Part of this review will include requesting evidence of the support provided to the claimant to show that the necessary threshold is being met.

  2. Bearing the above in mind therefore, all providers must ensure that they keep sufficiently detailed support records which can be produced upon request to prove that they are meeting the support criteria.

  3. In the next article on this series, we will consider in more detail what specific evidence a local authority will want to see when undertaking a regulation 86 review.

MR Associates - February 2023