Supported Living – Notes about exempt status

Why might it be of interest?
Understanding these terms is essential when you are considering supported living for your young person as they are very specific and have legal standing. And the status of the home and housing provider you are considering will affect whether the more generous Housing Benefit (HB) pays the rent and additional eligible charges or whether your young person would have to claim under the housing rules of Universal Credit – which is not so generous.

If you have a house or are considering buying a house for your young person it is again important that you understand how it needs to be managed to ensure you are able to cover all the associated costs of owning the home.

Supported Living

Exempt Accommodation, Specified Accommodation

My understanding of what exempt/specified accommodation is – relative to the likely needs of Bright Futures clients

 Exempt accommodation can only be provided by specific categories of housing provider:

• 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 not for profit voluntary organisation where that body or a person acting on its behalf also provides the claimant with care, support or supervision

Supported living:  is model for independent living where housing is provided alongside support, supervision or care to help people live as independently as possible in their community.

A person is a tenant in their own home and will be paying rent and housing costs to their housing provider.  In addition, they will be receiving a care package that is more than minimal (this is not defined) either provided directly by their landlord or by another organisation on behalf of the landlord.  The housing provider and care provider are independent of each other (even where they appear to be from the same organisation).  This is important as it means a person could change their care provider without losing their home, or move to another home and continue with the same care provider.

Specified accommodation includes exempt accommodation.  It is a term used by Housing Benefit and Universal Credit to describe supported accommodation where some of the rules that normally limit the amount of rent covered by a housing benefit award do not apply.  Each local authority, and areas within the local authority, have housing allowances for various size of home and personal situations.  This is the maximum amount the LA will usually allow for your rent.  When you have additional care and support needs this allowance is not usually sufficient for you to be able to live in a suitable rented property and people living in a supported living arrangement will have their rent and additional eligible charges paid via Housing Benefit – which recognises the additional costs associated with housing and care for disabled people.

Buying a property for your young person to live in:  this is entirely possible but in order to maximise the rent to cover all of the rental and associated costs you cannot lease the property directly to the young people.  This would constitute a private rental and only the housing element of Universal Credit would be available to the young people to pay their rent and the maximum rent they could receive is determined by the Local Housing Allowance (LHA).  Every borough has one or more LHA areas.  And while some additional communal service charges may be paid by the housing element the young people would be left with bills to pay that would be covered by Housing Benefit if the property and arrangement met the relevant rules.

There are ways to manage this:

• you can lease the property to an organisation who is able to provide exempt accommodation (see above) to benefit from the more advantageous rents and eligible charges available through Housing Benefit
• you can create a not for profit organisation to manage the property

If you manage the property directly yourself or through a management organisation who is not in a category able to provide exempt accommodation you will not be able to benefit from Housing Benefit rates and eligible charges.  These costs still exist so would either have to be borne by you or passed onto the tenants.

Real Life example:

Rent total:               £403

Actual rent:             £335

Eligible charges:      £68

Eligible charges are covered by Housing Benefit and in this instance include:

• Council tax
• Buildings insurance
• Repairs and decoration
• Housing maintenance
• Voids (allowance for bedrooms not filled)
• Communal heating and light
• Window cleaning
• Gardening

These are charges that someone has to pay – ie they are not optional.  If they are not paid via Housing Benefit then either the tenants have to pay or the owner has to pay.  Disabled tenants on benefits are unlikely to be able to afford these charges and probably unwilling to pay them as they wouldn’t have to if the arrangement met the Supported Living Exempt status rules.

To sum this up:  It is the housing provider who applies for the exempt rent and the housing provider has to have a specific status to be able to apply for exempt rents – which enables them to cover the higher costs associated with the supported sector.  A housing provider must fall under one of these categories to be able to apply for exempt rent:

• A housing association
• Not for profit voluntary organisation
• Registered charity
• An English non-metropolitan council
• And
• The care support and supervision is provided by the accommodation provider or by someone acting on behalf of the accommodation provider
• And
• The level of care, support and supervision is more than minimal

 What are the advantages of exempt accommodation?

Basic info

The amount of Housing Benefit paid for exempt accommodation is normally higher than the amount paid for any other accommodation of comparable size outside the regulated social rented sector in recognition that accommodation is usually more expensive to rent due to the care/support being provided to the tenant. The advantages of this are:

• Vulnerable people who need support are able to find accommodation that meets their needs and enables them to live as independently as possible.
• Organisations providing supported accommodation are able to cover the higher costs associated with the supported sector.
• Private landlords who lease property to organisations providing supported accommodation are able to obtain a fair market rent for good quality accommodation that is genuinely worth more than the low-to-average rents that Housing Benefit normally covers.

What is specified accommodation?

Basic info

“Specified accommodation” is a term used in Housing Benefit and Universal Credit to describe supported accommodation where some of the rules that normally limit the amount of rent covered by a housing benefit award do not apply.

Specified accommodation includes:

• Exempt accommodation, which is exempt from most benefit restrictions
• Other supported accommodation which is exempt from fewer benefit restrictions than exempt accommodation but is still treated more favourably than general needs accommodation. “Other supported accommodation” means:
  • Accommodation provided by a social or voluntary sector landlord where the benefit claimant is provided with care, support or supervision but that care, support or supervision is provided neither by the landlord nor by someone who is acting on the landlord’s behalf

Exempt and supported accommodation info from other websites:

https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/benefits_housing_council_tax/understanding-benefit-claims/specified-accommodation.aspx

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/exempt-accommodation-and-benefits