"Exempt Supported Housing", Universal Credit & Intensive Housing Management: News from the DWP

Support Solutions is pleased to publish our new Briefing which looks at the very recent information coming from the DWP which says, as we predicted in June of this year, that the housing costs of supported housing will be met through existing arrangements and not from Universal Credit. This is really important and very positive news. You can read our Briefing in full here.

This Briefing deals with the future funding of supported housing and Intensive Housing Management given the imminent implementation of Universal Credit.

Key Points:

·        Funding for the housing component of supported housing (including Intensive Housing management) is to be funded outside of Universal Credit in broadly the same way as it is now.

·        Exempt Accommodation is to be retained.

·        This may require the draft Universal Credit Regulations to be amended to relax the “benefit cap” for supported housing services which would otherwise breach it due to cost.

·        Sheltered housing is not specifically mentioned but there is nothing in what the DWP says to suggest it will be treated differently where there is a need for “general counselling & support” to be provided.

·        The DWP is to develop and pilot a locally based funding model in the longer term, perhaps when they have “bedded in” Universal Credit from 2017.