"Exempt Accommodation, Welfare Reform & Vulnerable Tenants": the slides that accompanied a series of briefings we ran. Things change fast so remember this was delivered in Autumn of 2013.

1. Exempt Accommodation,
Welfare Reform & Vulnerable
Tenants
Michael Patterson:
Support Solutions
October 2013

2. Key Questions
Exempt Accommodation: what is
it & why is it helpful?
Additional Housing Management
Services
Reviewing Exempt
Accommodation: the need for
change
Uncertainty & its Consequences

3. Key Questions
Case Law & Precedent to Support
Exempt Accommodation Scenarios
Exempt Accommodation & Welfare
Reform
Reinventing Exempt Accommodation
Tenancy Sustainment
Looking to the Future

4. Context
The purpose of today is to look at what
Exempt Accommodation is & why it’s so
important, especially in the context of Welfare
Reform. We need to look at the future for
Exempt Accommodation, recent DWP
announcements and the need for a
reinvention of funding for preventative
Additional Housing Management Services for
vulnerable people.

5. Exempt Accommodation
Nonprofit landlord (County Council, Registered
Provider, Voluntary Organisation or Charity)
Legal interest in accommodation (ownership or
lease), in which….
….”care support & supervision is provided”
Where the service is provided by or on behalf of the
Landlord
Accommodation-based & tenancy
sustainment/floating support can be Exempt
Accommodation

6. Why Exempt Accommodation is
Helpful
Has helped manage the retrenchment of
Supporting People
Has enhanced/protected levels of revenue
for Providers
Enhances services to vulnerable tenants
Protects tenants from some Welfare Reform
implications:
“Bedroom Tax”/Under Occupancy Charge

7. Why Exempt Accommodation is
Helpful
Benefit Cap
Direct payment of rent
LAs reclaim what they pay through HB via
the annual subsidy claim where an RP is
involved
Very cost-effective way of funding
preventative services that enable
independence in relation to housing

8. Why Exempt Accommodation is
Helpful
Takes pressure off statutory services such
as the NHS, Social Care, Homeless &
Criminal Justice.
The Exempt Accommodation rules allow
for the payment of enhanced Housing
Benefit for Intensive Housing
Management/Additional Housing
Management Services

9. Additional Housing Management
Services
General housing management more
intensively provided
Additional Housing Management Services
given the vulnerabilities of the tenants
Access control/Concierge
Non-emergency on call
Tenancy sustainment work
Depreciation of furniture, fixtures, white goods over
shorter periods

10. Additional Housing Management
Services
Handyperson & gardening/grounds services
CCTV
Door entry systems
Lifts maintenance
Proactive communications systems that reduce
the need for (and costs of) unfundable
hardwired alarm systems
Not an exhaustive list…….

11. Exempt Accommodation &Additional
Housing Management Services
Housing Corporation defined – ‘A guide to
Supported Housing’
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/docs/guide_to_supported_h
ousing.pdf

12. Current Discussion Around Exempt
Accommodation
The DWP has said it will review Exempt
Accommodation
It is currently quantifying the amount of HB
spent on Exempt Accommodation
Is encouraging the challenging of Exempt
Accommodation claims
Cash-limited pot & finite eligible charge list?

13. Exempt Accommodation: Time for
Change?
The Exempt Accommodation rules have served the
sector well since 1996
They do need to be revised to take account of:
 Changes since their inception
 Their own inherent limitations
They can still be made to work as they stand but it
requires external/structural changes or more complicated
explanations
Contrary to popular myth they haven’t been changed by
the DWP’s recent announcement

14. Exempt Accommodation: Time for
Change?
Unequal treatment of non-RP EA providers
focus on the nature/legal identity of the
landlord & therefore ignoring vulnerable
people in private accommodation
use of limited/outdated LA definitions (Non
Met County Council)
potential for confusion over agency managed
schemes.

15. Uncertainty & Its Consequences
The likelihood of some change (2017?) to the
Exempt Accommodation rules has led to
uncertainty by providers
This has been compounded by inadequate, and
sometimes incorrect, advice
Irrespective of the outcome of any change to the
Exempt Accommodation rules; providers with a
legitimate entitlement to enhanced HB should
claim it

16. Uncertainty & Its Consequences
….and why was the word “abuse” brought into
the discussion? We’re not aware of the DWP
having used that word.
Is sheltered housing Exempt Accommodation?
It’s often challenged on the grounds it provides
insufficient “care, support & supervision”.
And Agency-managed schemes? The “By or
on behalf of the landlord” rule.

17. Case Law & Precedent
Judge Turnbull Legal Precedent
R(H) 6/08, R(H) 4/09 – ‘Support’ involves the landlord
doing more than, or different from, the exercise of its
ordinary property management functions
Chorley BC v IT (HB) [2009] UKUT 107 (AAC) – support
not confined to counselling, advising, encouraging etc. ‘the
carrying out of repairs which clearly go beyond ordinary
housing management can amount to support’
Intensive Housing Management can therefore
be sufficient to qualify as exempt
accommodation!

18. Case Law & Precedent
Judge Turnbull Legal Precedent
Bristol CC v AW [2009] UKUT 109 (AAC) –
satisfactory test for determining support is more
than minimal is to ask whether the support
provided likely to make a real difference to the
claimant’s ability to live in the property
And with agency-managed schemes; who
is commissioning what?

19. Exempt Accommodation & Welfare
Reform
Tenants in Exempt Accommodation enjoy
protection from some of the harsher elements of
the Welfare Reform Act:
Bedroom Tax/UOC
Benefit Cap
Direct payment of rent (Payment Exceptions)
Those exemptions have recently been extended
to tenants in agency-managed schemes and
those in receipt of public subsidy

20. Exempt Accommodation & Welfare
Reform
This does not constitute a change to the
Exempt Accommodation rules; it
constitutes an expansion of the scope of
exemptions from Welfare Reform Act
implications.
“Public Subsidy”? presumably includes
SP funding; personal budgets; other
statutory funding? What about DLA/PIP?

21. Reinventing Exempt Accommodation
We think the exemptions already apply to
agency-managed schemes under the
Exempt Accommodation rules anyway,
which just goes to show that clarity is
needed
But the Exempt Accommodation rules
(and new exemptions) don't include
private tenants. Why not?

22. Reinventing Exempt Accommodation
We do need to reinvent Exempt
Accommodation: can we do so in a way
that makes the legal status of the landlord
irrelevant?
There is a huge amount of vulnerability in
general needs social lettings and in private
accommodation.

23. Reinventing Exempt Accommodation
The DWP has said it is looking to review
the EA rules from the perspective of no
increase in expenditure
DWP/Lord Freud allegedly personally
interested in EA as a consequence of a
letter from Medway Council who have a
£1.6m subsidy hole in their accounts,
presumably due to non-RP EA claims.

24. Reinventing Exempt Accommodation
Another reason the EA rules need
reviewing: uneven playing field between
RPs and non-RP EA providers.
LAs can’t reclaim all of the enhanced HB
they pay to non-Registered Provider
landlords, even though they provide the
same services to the same people

25. Reinventing Exempt Accommodation
Are we looking at a finite list of
IHM/AHMS service charges as an
outcome of any new system, perhaps
based on a capped amount at local level?
If we are we'll need to ensure that as
many legitimate ea claims and scenarios
are established as soon as possible

26. The Cost Benefit of Prevention
Let’s remember the cost-benefit
arguments around the inexpensive and
personally enabling funding of prevention
and independence vs. the expensive and
personally painful circumstances of
otherwise necessary emergency
interventions.
CapGemini & Frontier Economics

27. Tenancy Sustainment
Why should vulnerable tenants in general
needs social lettings not be deemed to be
in EA scenarios whilst they need
IHM/AHMS to support them to stay put?
The rules do not preclude this: it would be
hugely cost-effective and beneficial to
vulnerable people within the parameters of
choice, independence and safety.

28. Tenancy Sustainment
But why limit it to social tenants? The
landlord's status should be irrelevant; it's
the competency and cost of the provider
and the vulnerability of the person that
matters, albeit that many providers may
also be landlords in their own right; RPs
for example.

29. Looking to the Future…..
How about a system that ignores the
status of the vulnerable tenant's landlord
but requires the delivery of ihm/ahms on
and accredited basis with outcome-focused
SFROI methodology?
Stop "revolving door” syndrome
Reduce evictions and tenancy failures

30. Looking to the Future…..
Take pressure off the NHS, criminal justice,
homelessness and adult/Young People social
care agendas. Enable RPs & other providers
to provide IHM/AHMS subject to accreditation
& FSROI justification.
Save an awful lot of money
Help an awful lot of otherwise vulnerable
people to live an "ordinary life"

31. Looking to the Future…..
We must focus on value not cost: the public
funding paradigm has shifted.
One Department’s budget cut is another
Department’s budgetary pressure; it makes no
sense.
Need enhanced definition of "vulnerability" based
on the need for early intervention/preventative
work with vulnerable tenants, the focus being on
enabling tenants to stay independent in relation to
their accommodation

32. Looking to the Future…..
Inexpensive and supportive early
intervention/prevention instead of
expensive and painful emergency/crisis
intervention.

33. Looking to the Future…..
Use EA/HB as a breathing space whilst
we adapt to a different funding
environment:
Larger numbers of smaller, outcome-focused,
payment by results & FSROI justified contracts.
Wider range of services to a wider range of
people. CCGs, LAs, Homelessness, Criminal
Justice etc.
Social investment.

34. Looking to the Future…..
Plan B: allocate charges into the rent;
UC/"New EA" service charge
But why not Plan A?
Hugely cost-effective
Philosophically right: the right to an ordinary life
Massively increases the scope of prevention &
enablement by being tenure-neutral
Quantitative and qualitative justification of
benefit

35. Looking to the Future…..
Needs work to address definitions of
vulnerability in relation to accommodation
Needs work to develop SFROI
methodologies
Needs the oxygen of publicity: 13th
February 2014; ICC Birmingham
Briefing out next week

36. Looking to the Future…..
Providers need to act on the Exempt
Accommodation rules as they stand and to
organise around the nature of any change
The Media Bubble will be promoting the
Reinvention of Exempt Accommodation using
#ExemptAccommodation and #EA
Reflects ideas of Prof John Seddon
Will receive high level media attention

37. Exempt Accommodation & Additional
Housing Management Services
Please talk to us!
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_12/e
xempt_accommodation.html
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_12/u
cihm.html
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_11/i
ntensive_housing_management_.html
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/blog/blog.html

38. Our Contact Details
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Birmingham B14 7LP
0845 271 3080
www.supportsolutions.co.uk
info@supportsolutions.co.uk
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