WTF Policy Response - Social Security Amendments Act 2008

Back dating housing benefit

The Welsh Tenants Federation are dismayed at the proposals to reduce the number of weeks that tenants can backdate housing benefit from 52 weeks to 12 weeks.

The ability to backdate housing benefit is critical to help prevent homelessness, reduce poverty and disadvantage and runs counter to the governments anti-poverty agenda. The proposals outlined in the Social Security Miscellaneous (Amendment) Act 2008 will force landlords to make quicker decisions to evict in the knowledge that they cannot reclaim rent, service charges and community charge beyond 3 months. This may also restrict the time to work with tenants to resolve indebtedness at a time when the majority of policy is geared to proactive support.

The complexities of coming off and on housing benefit are already complicated enough, with problems experienced by people working as agency workers and for those who have seasonal employment. Further, employers are paying increasingly on a salaries basis even for low paid jobs, particularly where small commissions are attached. In these circumstances claimants would have to wait more than three months to obtain a proper assessment of earnings and therefore assess whether they would be eligible for entitlement. This may mean more frequent smaller claims for shorter periods resulting in a negative cost benefit to the department.

The measures also impact on people experiencing mental health problems who may require time to seek appropriate advice, make claims and have determinations made and will undoubtedly create added problems for people receiving housing related support.

Issues are also compounded by the length of time taken by local authorities to process housing benefit claims and make determinations. While provisions have been improved in recent years enabling tenants to make their claims by telephone and enable them to have that date as the start date for the claim, this does not resolve the problem of housing related advisory support services with tighter deadlines having to be met with decreasing resources.

The Welsh Tenants Federation believes that the measures will add pressure to landlords to use Ground 8 (mandatory eviction) with the measure undoubtedly figuring in any arrears which may be claimable beyond 3 months.
The Welsh Tenants Federation believes the proposed savings will outweigh any benefit to the public purse with an increase in homelessness; increase in indebtedness; a reluctance to come off benefits and obtain seasonal work and restrict housing benefit advisory workers efforts to work with their clients over a longer period to assist people who have a legitimate claim.

With limited resources in the voluntary sector, there will be undoubted pressures on the voluntary sector to deal with general indebtedness, with their own internal cost benefit decisions being a factor on the amount being contested, resulting in prioritisation of cases and a reduction in amounts for legitimate housing benefit claims.

Further, the proposals are also linked to amendments to pension credit system. We see no anti poverty measure in extending the eligibility to claim pension credit while abroad from 4 weeks to 13 weeks. We see this measure as benefiting those who can afford to spend a 3 month continual period oversees, rather than assisting people in such a basic provision as an eligibility to claim housing benefit due to real hardship.

Although the consultation period is now closed, further information about the proposals can be obtained from http://www.ssac.org.uk/ both CAB and Shelter www.shelter.org.uk have also made representations.


Steve Clarke
Policy & Projects co-ordinator
Welsh Tenants Federation