Housing Benefit changes from April 2013 Janine Cox, Revenues & Benefits manager

Size criteria for social tenants From April 2013 Housing Benefit will be worked out based on how many bedrooms you need for your household size. Affects working-age households only – if you or your partner are a pensioner this change will not affect you. Will apply to working-age tenants in Temporary Accommodation Will not apply to working-age tenants in supported accommodation i.e. hostels Will not apply to working-age tenants in Sheltered accommodation

Size criteria for social tenants HB will be worked out based on the number of bedrooms the household needs, which is: one bedroom for –every adult couple (same or opposite sex) –any other adult aged 16 or over –any two children under 16 of the same sex –any two children regardless of sex under age 10 –any other child

Size criteria for social tenants One additional bedroom will be allowed where you or your partner require occasional overnight care If you have children who cannot share a bedroom because of a health condition or disability we may allow a separate bedroom for them dependant on individual circumstances Children away at college or university can be considered as part of the household if they return home during holidays. We will need information from you on in all these circumstances.

Size criteria for social tenants Housing Benefit will be reduced by 14% for one spare bedroom, as defined by the criteria Housing Benefit will be reduced by 25% for two or more spare bedrooms, as defined by the criteria The reduction is from your Housing Benefit not your income

Size criteria for social tenants If you suffer a bereavement you will receive up to 12 months protection before this change might affect you. If you could afford your rent so were not claiming Housing Benefit but lose your job the size criteria will not apply for the first 13 weeks of any new claim for Housing Benefit.

Size criteria for social tenants We are writing to all those we think will be affected by this change, based on the information we already hold about who lives in your household. If the information we hold is wrong you must tell us, you may lose benefit if you don’t. We are working closely with other council departments to ensure tenants know all their available options.

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) The government is providing extra funding for the DHP fund, especially to help disabled tenants and foster carers. This is a cash limited fund. Each case will be looked at individually but not all applications can be paid in full. A DHP cannot cover ineligible services such as heating charges, or overpayment recovery action A DHP can be used to pay moving costs. We can pre-agree provisional DHPs before April 2013 so you know in advance if and how you will be affected by the changes when they happen.

Benefit cap From April 2013 the maximum amount of benefits a household can claim will be limited. Affects working-age benefit claimants only, not pensioners Total income from benefits is to be capped at £500 per week for couples or lone parents, £350 per week for single people Benefits included: Income Support and Job Seekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit, and Housing Benefit among others.

Benefit cap The cap won’t apply if you, your partner or any children are in receipt of Working Tax Credits or certain disability benefits. The cap will be applied through Housing Benefit even though it is the DWP that decide who will be capped and by how much. The DWP have identified those households likely to be affected and have already written to them with advice. The list so far contains about 30 council households, we are contacting and visiting these households in person to discuss their options.

Changes to council tax benefit From April 2013 the council will be responsible for a new local version of what was council tax benefit (CTB) The Government is reducing the money available to Councils for this by 10%, for Brighton and Hove this is about £2.5million The final scheme has not been agreed yet – public consultation has ended, everyone of working age who gets CTB at the moment was written to and invited to take part in the consultation. We expect the final decision to be made by Full Council in December 2012 so information will follow afterwards. Any scheme which is introduced will have to take account of people who are vulnerable

Changes to council tax benefit The proposals we consulted on are: –The Council is putting around £1m towards the scheme but we still need to make further changes –Pensioners will be protected –All people of working age will need to make some council tax payment –No household will be more than £3 per week worse off because of these changes (assuming there are no other changes of circumstances). –A discretionary fund will provide additional help in exceptional circumstances for the most vulnerable

Changes to council tax benefit The Severe Mental Impairment exemption is not being changed Single person discounts are not being affected Everyone who will be affected will be written to before the change happens We will communicate with people in different ways, for example we will try to telephone those customers who haven’t had to pay council tax before when we are able to identify those who will be affected

Where to find more information Contact Housing Benefits or your local housing office: –Online: using our change of household form hove.gov.uk/householdchanges or the benefits claim and calculator hove.gov.uk/householdchanges –By post: Benefits Services, PO Box 2929, Brighton, BN1 1PS –By or –By telephone: (01273) See the council’s website there are different links to pages about Benefits, Housing, Council Taxwww.brighton-hove.gov.uk We will be creating an online calculator to see how many bedrooms you are entitled to and how much benefit you might expect You can contact your Housing office for tenancy advice The DWP website is there is a factsheet on the benefit cap and an online calculator availablewww.directgov.gov.uk