Housing and Council Tax Benefit changes 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 Housing Benefit claimants only, if you don’t claim you won’t be affected. Affects working-age households only – the change does not affect pension-age claimants. Unlikely to apply to tenants in supported 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 one additional bedroom where the customer or partner require occasional overnight care

Size criteria for social tenants Housing Benefit will be reduced by 14% for one spare bedroom, as defined by the criteria Example: Rent £70.00 less 14% (£9.80) = £60.20 maximum HB tenant to pay £9.80 per week

Size criteria for social tenants Housing Benefit will be reduced by 25% for two or more spare bedrooms, as defined by the criteria Example: Rent £70.00 less 25% (£17.50) = £52.50 maximum HB tenant to pay £17.50 per week

Size criteria for social tenants All affected customers will be identified and contacted well in advance of the change. We will tell you what we think the change to your benefit will be based on the information we hold at the time. 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. Some of this extra funding is intended to help disabled tenants and foster carers. This is a cash limited fund and not all applications can be paid. Each case will be looked at individually but the fund is intended to help short-term exceptional circumstances. A DHP cannot cover ineligible services such as heating charges, or overpayment recovery action

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 DWP have identified those households likely to be affected and have already written to them with advice. The list contains about 30 council households, as this is a small number we intend to follow up in person nearer the time. A factsheet from the DWP is available.

Council tax support (CTS) From April 2013 the council will be responsible for a new local version of what was council tax benefit (CTB) We are calling this Council Tax Support We have to save 10% of current CTB spending Pensioners to be protected Very likely that non-pensioners will need to make some council tax payment but we will take into account tenant’s vulnerabilities Project team is working on this now, further information will follow in future weeks/months.

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