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

Mental Health & Homelessness Events

Cymorth Cymru are running a series of events on Mental Health & Homelessness, the first of which is takes place on 12th June 2008 at the All Nations Centre, Cardiff. The events are free to attend and are aimed at frontline workers across the health, housing and homelessness sectors.

The dates for the other events are:-
30th September – Technium Cast Centre, Bangor
19th November – Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth

For futher information and booking forms for these events, please contact:-
Cymorth Cymru
Norbury House
Norbury Road
Fairwater
Cardiff CF5 3AS
Tel 029 2055 3687 Fax 029 2056 4165
Web: www.cymorthcymru.org.uk

Mental Health & Homelessness: Joining up to Improve Access

These events are being run by Cymorth Cymru, the second of which is taking place on 30th September 2008 at Technium Cast Centre, Bangor these events are free to attend and are aimed at frontline workers across the health, housing and homelessness sectors.

If you wish to attend, please contact

Cymorth Cymru
Norbury House
Norbury Road
Fairwater
Cardiff CF5 3AS
Tel 029 2055 3687 Fax 029 2056 4165

Web: www.cymorthcymru.org.uk

The last event is:-
19th November – Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth

Additional information will be circulated regarding the North and Mid/West Wales events as we recived it.

TPAS Cymru and Welsh Tenants Federation Joint Annual Conference

Back to the Future - 20 Years of Tenant Participation
12th – 14th November 2008

This year we are looking at the past, the present and the future of tenant participation in Wales to bring you as always a conference that is full of interesting and informative plenary sessions, interactive workshops and great opportunities to network with tenants, landlords staff and other organisations from across Wales.


On Wednesday the main plenaries will review tenant participation in Wales in the ‘Count Us In’ report and will look at how tenant participation has changed the lives of tenants and landlords in Wales over the past 20 years and as always there will be plenty of opportunities to voice your opinion and ask the speakers questions.

On Thursday the main plenary will be discussing what the future holds for tenant participation and will be debating the Regulatory Reform and what it can do for Tenant Participation and findings from the Essex report. As usual the Thursday program contains a wide range of useful and interactive workshops and we will post further details of these shortly, so watch this space!

On Friday there will be more interesting and relevant workshops for you to attend and a fun and interactive closing session (details to follow shortly). The Chairs of both organisations will summarise the lessons learned at the conference to close the event.

If you are interested in attending booking forms will be available shortly from the websites of both TPAS Cymru and the Welsh Tenants Federation.

Please note that the residential bookings will be granted on a first come first served basis so get your forms in quickly when they are available to avoid disappointment.

Our aim is that this year’s program has something for everyone, so come and join us - we look forward to seeing you there!

The above program information is in draft format and may be subject to changes.

Wales Audit Office - Housing inspections

The Wales Audit Office, the body that undertakes inspections for housing associations issued today a guide (What we look for Inspection Guide) which outlines what inspectors will be looking for when reviewing housing association performance.

The consultation paper covers specific areas within housing and deals with aspects of service that inspectors look for before arriving at a judgement on 'How Good' the service is. There are three levels of judgement which now include: Scope for considerable improvement, Good and Excellent.

The Wales Audit Office has been using Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOE) to help answer questions about the quality of housing services for some time now. The WTF supports the view that a revision was required with something that more closely describes what inspectors and tenants look for, and expect to find, in specific areas of housing service.

“What we look for”, links more directly with the key expectations set out in the Welsh Assembly Government Regulatory Code for Housing Associations in Wales and builds upon the experience gained by WAO inspection teams, said Steve Barry of the WAO.

You can read this document by following this link WAO

The Wales Audit Office are seeking views of stakeholders and are interested in answers to the following questions:

Does “What we look for” sufficiently cover the aspects of service important to your organisation?
Does “What we look for” sufficiently cover the issues of importance to tenants and other service users?

Your response should be received by the Wales Audit Office by 30 November 2007 to info@wao.gov.uk. or contact the Welsh Tenants Federation so that we can collate responses on tenants behalf. steve@welshtenantsfed.org.uk

Partners in participation project

Partners in participation project - Pembrokeshire Tenant Participation Strategy

Early this year, following a Welsh Assembly Government review of participation in Wales, a steering group consisting of landlords and tenants was set up to explore how they are able to develop a strategic approach to the delivery of better participation in Pembrokeshire.

Having been successful in a joint bid to the Tenant Empowerment Grant scheme with the Welsh Tenants Federation. The steering group are now seeking to develop a broader working group to develop this approach with the ultimate aim of delivering better housing service provision.

The ‘partners in participation seminars’ are being organized by tenants and landlords of the following housing service providers; Pembrokehire County Council, Pembrokeshire Housing Association; Cantref Housing Association and Gwerin Housing Association. We are seeking 4 representatives form each landlord. If you would like to come along to the events, please contact one of the landlord representatives listed below or telephone the Welsh Tenants Federation directly.

Schedule of future meetings

Friday 28th Sept - De Clare Court - Haverfordwest [Understanding the strategy. Defining shared values and exploring the scope of the strategy]
Monday, 15th October, Dewi Sant - Croft Court, Pembroke [Opportunities to get involved through formal and informal means and structures]
Wednesday, 7th November, County Hall, Haverfordwest, 1DM2 [Examining systems and processes that need to be developed including service review systems]
Tuesday, 20th November, County Hall, Haverfordwest, 1DM2 [Putting support together for tenants and landlords]
Tuesday, 4th December, Meyler House, Boardroom Haverfordwest [Developing capacity and responding to learning requirements]
Monday, 17th December, De-Clare Court - Haverfordwest [Leadership commitment]
Wednesday, 16th January 2008, Meyler House, Boardroom, Haverfordwest [Final draft of the strategy document & Social evening]

Meetings have been organised in morning and afternoon sessions as follows:

Arrival registration and overview 9:45 am sessions 1:45 afternoon

Key elements of the strategy 10:00–11:00 am sessions 14:00–15:00 afternoon
Breakaway into groups to consider actions 11:00-11:30 am 15:00–15:30 for afternoon
Group discussion on actions 12:00–12:30 16:00 – 16:30 afternoon
Refreshments / buffet 12:30–13:00 16:30–17:00 afternoon
Discussion on making connections and shared values 13:00–14:00 17:00–18:00

Close 14:00 am sessions 18:00 close for afternoon session

Refreshments, buffet and transport will be arranged via your landlord host

Through the partners in participation seminars, each constituent body will be developing action points to ensure the tenant wishes are actioned in the delivery of the strategic approach.

Where there is scope for joint working among landlord and tenants to improve opportunities for involvement, a county wide action plan will be developed.

This is an exiting time for participation with the opportunity to take the lead and make connections across service, geographic and organizational boundaries. If you want to be a part of this project, then please contact us.

If you are unable to attend any of the seminars, then don’t worry. Once the draft is complete you will be able to contribute to the strategy and action planning process via other means. In the meanwhile, the Welsh Tenants Federation will be pleased to hear from any individual or community group who may want to ensure that their issues are raised. We will guarantee that ideas and concerns are fed into the development process.

Telephone the WTF on 01685 723922 for further information

This project is sponsored by the Tenant Empowerment Grant Scheme funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Adaptations for Housing Association Tenants

The Housing Directorate of the Welsh Assembly Government has issued a consultation paper concerning the Adaptations for Housing Association Tenants. The proposals contain detail;s of changes to Physical adaptation Grants (PAGs) and the payment of Social Housing Management Grant (SHG) which meet the needs of disabled tenants of Housing Associations in Wales.

We would be interested to hear any tenants views concerning the consultation please email steve @welshtenantsfed.org.uk

The closing date for comments is 30th November 2007.
Copies of the consultation paper can be found at: http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/housingandcommunity/consultation/adaptationsforhousingassoco/?lang=en