Lack of cap on transitional housing benefit threatens Supporting People regime with delay
Supported housing schemes risk having funding cut or even refused for submitting unrealistically high claims for cash to cover the separation of support costs from rent next year.

The government may even be forced to delay the initiative or slash next year's budget as it does not have money to cover all the schemes, it was warned this week.

The costs will be separated when the Supporting People goes live in April.

But Supporting People teams across the country have been surprised by an increase in extravagant claims for the transitional housing benefit designed to smooth the change and claims are being called in by benefits officers.

English Churches Housing Group strategy director Sue Witherspoon said some providers' claims were skyrocketing, in some cases beyond £1000 a week for one person, because no maximum THB level had been set by the government.

"More and more people have realised there are things they have always wanted to do that they can fund through THB," she said.

"I think the government has got its sums wrong. The latest guidance says money is only available from existing sources, but I don't think government knows that people have been putting in new services and bumping staff costs up and pushing up financial risk."

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Department for Work and Pensions will either have to rationalise or delay the introduction of Supporting People, Witherspoon said.

One Supporting People team manager in the West Country said civil servants encouraged providers to "maximise" use of the THB pot. More complex schemes with higher support levels had emerged in the last year, he said.

Funds for 2003/04 were already committed, but the government was likely to review this, leaving some providers with a shortfall, he said. He added: "The government is nervous and will monitor this to the hilt."

Former St Helens council Supporting People team manager Roy Cowley said most schemes with high claims met the government's agenda on community-based care.

Small schemes had high staffing costs that were not spread across a large number of residents.

"If an artificial limit were put on THB claims it would hamper the aim of trying to fully map and quantify all housing-related support," he added.

Source

Housing Today