Settled Housing Solutions Local Housing Allowance Seminar In association with Landlord Action

1. Landlord & Buy to Let Show March 2010 Settled Housing SolutionsLocal Housing Allowance SeminarIn association with Landlord Action Local Housing Allowance: Making it Work for You

2. Introduction to Settled Housing Solutions? Formed in 2007 Enabling improved engagement between PRS and local authorities PRS research and housing option development Successfully delivered a series of high profile projects Translate PRS related legislation and policy into both public and private front line services Invited by Communities and Local Government to contribute to the Government’s response to the Rugg Review

3. Local Housing Allowance Tenancy Support Plans Our 3 key objectives Increase supply for local authority Sustain tenancies for LHA clients Protect landlords and letting agents from the threat of rent arrears, voids and financial loss

4. Settled Housing Solutions and Landlord Action Both companies provide services and advice to UK landlords and letting agents Positive and negative outcomes First LHA seminar held in London on 26th Feb 2010 Over 30 landlords and professional letting agents attended More seminars scheduled for London, Birmingham and Manchester

5. What is Housing Benefit Housing Benefit (HB): A means tested social security benefit that helps people pay their rent - either in whole or in part.

6. How many people are claiming HB? At November 2009, the total number of people claiming Housing Benefit was 4.58 million 3.04 million Housing Benefit recipients were of working-age, representing almost two thirds of all Housing Benefit recipients. 71 per cent of Housing Benefit recipients were tenants of Social Sector landlords and 29 per cent were tenants of Private Sector landlords (approx. 1.33 million)

7. Who administers Housing Benefit? • Every Local Authority (i.e. council) runs the HB scheme in their area. • The government pays councils a "subsidy" towards the costs of administering the HB scheme. It also pays back a percentage of the actual payments of HB that are made. • The remainder of the money that is required to run the HB scheme comes from the council's own budget - mainly through Council Tax revenue.

8. Who sets the Housing Benefit rules? The law that affects HB is contained in: • Primary legislation (i.e. Acts of Parliament) • Secondary legislation (i.e. other regulations and orders) There are dozens of acts, regulations and orders that lay out the rules for HB but the main ones are as follows...

9. Who sets the Housing Benefit rules? • Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 • Social Security Administration Act 1992 • Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 • Social Security Fraud Act 2001 • Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (this contains details of the entitlement of people "subject to immigration control") • The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 • The Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 • The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2006 • The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2001

10. Who decides the level of rent that can be paid in Housing Benefit? The Rent Service was formally an Executive Agency of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). From 1st April 2009 their functions transferred to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). Their work mainly centres around the private rented housing sector in England.

11. Local Housing Allowance • The new system was introduced for new claims from 7 April 2008 • Every month, Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates are published for the 153 Broad Rental Market Areas (BRMA) that cover England • London is covered by 14 BRMAs • These figures are generated automatically from data collected by Rent Officers

12. Local Housing Allowance • LHA’s are a median figure generated from 12 months of data using an automatic process • The figures are published on the LHA-direct website so that people know the rates before signing a tenancy • LHA figures are also published by each local authority • It is a 12 month rolling database to which we add more data every month as older data falls off

13. So what is a Median LHA? • £175.00 • £185.00 • £185.00 • £190.00 • £195.00 • £195.00 • £200.00 • £200.00 • £200.00 • £200.00 • £205.00 • £205.00 • £210.00 • The median rent is the figure halfway up the distribution of the List of Rents in the BRMA. • In practice the average List of Rents contains several hundred items of data

14. London BRMA’s

15. Example of Published rate: Camden LHA Direct: https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/

16. How Local Housing Allowance Housing Benefit is paid HB will always be paid to the claimant except when: • The claimant has rent arrears of 8 weeks or more. • Deductions are being made from the claimant’s Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance or Pension Credit to pay rent arrears to the landlord

17. How Local Housing Allowance Housing Benefit is paid Local Housing Allowance Housing Benefit may also be paid to the landlord when: • The claimant is likely to have difficulty managing their financial affairs • It is believed that it is ‘improbable’ that claimant will pay their rent All local authorities have a detailed ‘safeguard policy’ on how these matters will be decided.

18. Why should I consider accepting a tenant on LHA? LHA claimants are generally less socially mobile. This means that they generally stay in one place for a long time compared to professional tenant who may move more frequently Longer tenancies. More support available to the client group. Depending on location, LHA rate may be higher than market average.

19. Know the value of the property • Check LHA rate at local authority website or • LHA direct website www.lha-direct.voa.gov.uk Assessing tenant’s likely entitlement Details required of: • Family composition (including non dependants) • Family income (including non dependants) Perform entitlement check on www.entitledto.co.uk website

20. Applying for Housing Benefit Assist tenant to complete HB form. Make sure they have supporting documentation (originals not copies). Get tenant to sign information disclosure form for benefits service to share claim information with you. Make sure the tenant has requested payment to you – Include your bank account details.

21. Applying for Housing Benefit, continued Make sure you the tenant provides you with a receipt from the local authority confirming they have submitted their claim and documentation Even better – go with them! Submit claim at least in the week before the tenant is due to move in.

22. Evidence requirements – original copies only! • Family composition • Proof of Income • Proof of ID • Proof of NI number • Income support/Job Seekers Allowance • Earnings • Child benefit • Savings • Tax credits • Other benefits

23. Bank Accounts Does the tenant have a bank account? Is the account overdrawn – LHA will be swallowed up! Basic bank accounts

24. Be proactive, not reactive, in managing the tenancy Contact benefit service regularly to check progress of claim. Maintain up to date records of rental receipts and dates received. Keep copies of all documentation and receipts for information supplied to the council. Record who you have spoken to and what was said. If arrears develop, request direct payment.

25. DWP Local Housing Allowance Guidance New Local Housing Allowance Safeguarding Criteria Guidelines DWP Definition of Safeguard: The term ‘safeguard’ is used where direct payment to the landlord helps claimants who might not otherwise be able to pay their rent themselves.

26. Key Changes: • Local Authority to produce a clear statement on their new SP and ‘Vulnerability Criteria’ • Landlord assisted schemes can be seen as ‘reliable evidence’ for trigger of SP to be implemented. • New trigger for payment to landlord after 4 weeks rent arrears (previously 8 weeks) • LHA payments automatically switched to landlord/agent for 8 weeks while review is carried out • Landlord/agent notified of review decision.

27. How can you the landlords and letting agents assist the success of the new guidelines: • Find out how your local authority housing options service and HB service interpret the new guidelines. (i.e. landlord assisted schemes or any person the housing service assist in the private rented sector) • Become an informed expert on the new guidelines • Request a SP standard form from the Housing Advice/HB service that can be used when rent arrears occur. • Request that the local authority dedicates resources to supporting landlords such as landlord hotline

28. Settled Housing Solutions & Landlord Action LHA Seminars On the day, you will have Local Housing Allowance training on: • LHA Safeguard Policies• Local authority assisted schemes offered to landlords • Get paid out on benefit claims much quicker.• Legislative protocol to manage housing benefit claims.• Increase your rental profits by knowing the system.• Latest housing allowance updates• Ongoing LHA monitoring and performance: how it can be improved.

29. Settled Housing Solutions & Landlord Action LHA Seminars General advice about: • Effective tenant referencing.• Tips on how to avoid bad tenants.• Eviction procedures.• Debt recovery.

30. Settled Housing Solutions & Landlord Action LHA Seminars Q&A & Networking You will have the opportunity to directly put your questions to industry experts. You will also have the opportunity to network with other industry professionals.

31. Settled Housing Solutions & Landlord Action LHA Seminars WHAT IS INCLUDED: • Full education pack• Slides from the speakers• Refreshments will be available all day• Three course buffet lunch

32. What they said about the LHA Seminar… ‘The LHA Seminar was extremely useful; it struck the right cord between being informative and keeping the information on a need-to-know basis. It would be easy to get bogged down in minute details but the team kept the sessions succinct and interesting. I would thoroughly recommend the seminar to any lettings managers wanting to get on top of their LHA tenancies. I am quite sure the seminar would be beneficial to any landlords who are unsure of the process and benefits to the system.’ Victoria Brewerton - Owen Belvoir! The Lettings Specialist ‘I was fortunate enough to win the draw for a LHA Seminar by Landlord Action. On this occasion I attended the seminar because it was free, however, I feel that even if I had paid money, I would have certainly walked away with a number of ideas that would have meant that I would have recovered this investment.’ Kamal Joshi Claybury Estates Ltd

33. Thank you for coming to our seminar Any questions? Come and see Settled Housing Solutions on stand C10 Visit Landlord Action on stand C5 Or visit our websites: www.settledhousingsolutions.com www.landlordaction.co.uk