A leaked letter has emerged, sent from the DCLG to the office of the Prime Minister. The full text of the letter is here. Written by Eric Pickles' private secretary, apparently at Pickles behest, the letter sets out the DCLG's concerns at the effects...
“Bright lines” and housing benefit
The re-design of the administration of housing benefit has sought to address the scheme's complexity in recent years - the local housing allowance is a particular example of this re-design, with the shift to flat rate payments according to household size. ...
A comedy of errors
Following on from David's sort of disrepair related post below, here is another one - not directly a disrepair matter but bearing on terms of settlement. It is either quite significant or something of a farce of bad drafting, bad decisions and windfall...
No recovery of accidental overpayments
The Child Poverty Action Group v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2010] UKSC 54 Just a quick note to confirm that the Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the Court of Appeal decision (reported here) that the Secretary of State cannot use common law...
Relying on advice on the LHA
Ombudsman's Decision: Complaint against Newham LB [2010] Complaint no 09 003 325 9 November 2010 Hat-tip to the Garden Court bulletin for this one. Miss Thornton (pseudonym) was in temporary accommodation provided by Newham LBC pursuant to the full housing...
Pathway plans and duties
In R(A) v Lambeth LBC [2010] EWHC 1652 (Admin) (Claim 1) and [2010] EWHC 2439 (Admin) (Claim 2), Kenneth Parker J considered first whether it was proper for a personal advisor to complete a ChIldren Act 1989 pathway plan, and, secondly, the degree of...
DWP Research: HB & LHA
The DWP has snuffled out (it seems like the best expression but apologies for it) three research reports on the impact of the local housing allowance. Of course, these reports are largely out of date as a result of recent announcements about the LHA but...
Exodus
As we await the impact of the imposed upper limits of Housing Benefit, starting in April 2011, it appears that some London Councils have already decided on the likely results, according to this story in the Observer. Representatives of London boroughs told a...
HB and IS: Breaking the link
Readers will be aware that, once an assessment of income and capital has been made for income support (IS) purposes so that a claimant is entitled to IS, a housing benefit (HB) authority is generally bound by that decision so that HB should follow...
Housing Benefit limits
You've probably already seen this, but new upper limits on housing benefit rates are to be introduced from next April (2011). For a three bed house, the upper limit will be £340 per week For a four bed house, the upper limit will be £400 per week LHA will be...
Ibrahim/Teixeira guidance
The DWP has issued guidance to decision-makers on benefit entitlement in the wake of Ibrahim and Teixeira (our report here) in the European Court, for when there is a likely Article 12 Regulation (EEC) No 1612/68 derived right for a child or children to...
Rent arrears management – boring title, excellent report
Is it too much to hope that - finally - the Government might take steps to ameliorate and / or prevent the use of Ground 8? During the passage of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, the Government gave a commitment to look again at the use of inter alia,...