The Benefit Fraud Inspectorate said that there had been a clear improvement in local authorities' administration of housing benefits and counter-fraud activity since December 2002. Official statistics showed that the level of fraud and error in housing benefit in 2002-03 was 750 million, or 6.2 per cent of expenditure (these were the first headline estimates for the level of fraud and error derived via statistical analysis of data collected by the Housing Benefit Review continuous measurement exercise).
Source: Press release 18 December 2003, Benefit Fraud Inspectorate/Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171) | Fraud and Error in Housing Benefit: April 2002 to March 2003, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7962 8176)
Links: BFI/DWP press release | DWP report (pdf) | Statistical press notice (pdf) | DWP press release
Date: 2003-Dec
The government announced that it would remove restrictions on council tax benefit for residents living in high-value (band F, G or H) properties from April 2004. The move was designed to help claimants forced to rent properties in areas with expensive accommodation, such as London and the south-east. It also pledged to help the 1.9 million pensioners who would either be eligible for council tax benefit for the first time, or qualify for more help through the introduction of pension credit, to receive their entitlements in full.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 15 December 2003, columns 125-126WS, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 15 December 2003, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: Hansard | DWP press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Dec
The government announced a reform of the way councils received funding for housing benefit and council tax benefit. For the first time funding for social and private tenants housing benefit would come from the same place - the Department for Work and Pensions - in an attempt to make the process more efficient. From April 2004 subsidy would be paid at the rate of 100 per cent for all benefits correctly paid by local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland; the subsidy rate for properly backdated claims would increase from 50 per cent to 100 per cent; and councils would be subsidised for incorrect local authority overpayments in a performance-related way, linked to an authority s achievements against thresholds set by the DWP.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 1 December 2003, columns 49-50WS, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 1 December 2003, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: Hansard | DWP press release | DWP circular (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
Researchers reviewed how local authorities were using discretionary housing payments. Most authorities welcomed the broader scope of the new arrangements compared to the previous system of exceptional hardship and exceptional circumstances payments. Officers awarding the new payments used the fund mostly as a short-term fund for alleviating poverty or difficult circumstances (in cases where the level of housing benefit was below the rent payable).
Source: Bruce Walker and Pat Niner, Review of Discretionary Housing Payments, In-House Report 127, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | DWP press release
Date: 2003-Nov
A coalition of 27 organisations said that government plans to use reductions in housing benefit as a deterrent to anti-social behaviour would not work, were wrong in principle, and should be dropped.
Source: Press release 12.8.03, Shelter (020 7505 4699) and other organisations
Links: Shelter press release | ADSS submission | Consultation document (pdf)
Date: 2003-Aug
Researchers found a mixed range of experience among the (fewer than 40) local authorities that had at any time out-sourced all, or part, of their housing benefit or council tax benefit administration to external contractors. For some local authorities, outsourcing had worked well from the beginning: in other areas it had not worked and the service had been brought back in-house.
Source: John Harvey, Robin Gray, Geoff Fimister and Ken MacNeill, Local Authority Experience in Outsourcing Housing and Council Tax Benefits, In-House Report 115, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jun
A report explored differences in performance in rent collection between housing associations. It looked at why some tenants pay promptly and some don t, and housing associations' view of housing benefit.
Source: Housing Association Rent Income: Rent collection and arrears management by Housing Associations in England, Audit Commission (0800 502030) and Housing Corporation
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-May
The government announced its intention to legislate to ensure that all registered care homes in England were assessed for council tax as a single residence, even where they provided self-contained units for independent living. The proposals would mean one council tax bill being issued to the care home, with the owner responsible for paying. The government said the move would ensure that individual residents who were least able to pay would not be asked to pay a separate council tax bill for their accommodation.
Source: Press release 15.5.03, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 3000)
Links: Press release
Date: 2003-May
The government began consultation with local authorities and other bodies on the possible use of housing benefit sanctions to tackle anti-social behaviour. Campaigners attacked the plans, saying that they would not solve the problem and would simply cause homelessness.
Source: Housing Benefit Sanctions and Anti-social Behaviour: Consultation paper, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171) | Press release 28.5.03, NCH (0845 7626579)
Links: Consultation document (pdf) |DWP press release | Shelter press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-May
A think-tank report said that the poverty trap was largely the product of the housing benefit system. It set out details of a series of reforms aimed at ending work disincentives and ultimately the poverty trap itself.
Source: Tom Sleigh, More Hope for Housing Benefit, Pivot Initiative (020 7426 5397) and Centrepoint
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Apr
Two reports highlighted the problem of tens of thousands of council and housing association tenants being threatened with homelessness by landlords who resorted to court action too readily and failed to deal with rent arrears effectively. Citizens Advice said it was particularly alarmed by cases where social landlords used the threat of court action as a way of tackling delays in paying housing benefit.
Source: House Keeping: Preventing homelessness through tackling rent arrears in social housing, Shelter (020 7505 4699) | Liz Phelps and Mary Carter, Possession Action - The Last Resort?: CAB evidence on court action by social landlords to recover rent arrears, Citizens Advice (formerly NACAB) (020 7833 2181)
Links: Shelter press release | Citizens Advice report (Word file) | Citizens Advice press release
Date: 2003-Feb
The government published, for the first time, figures for how quickly local councils process housing benefit and council tax benefit. The figures covered the first two quarters of 2002-03, and will be updated every quarter. They showed wide disparities in performance between councils.
Source: Housing Benefit Quarterly Performance Statistics, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf and Excel files) | Press release
Date: 2003-Jan
The government announced a pilot project (in three districts) under which evidence for housing benefit and council tax benefit will be collected and verified alongside certain other benefits. (Currently, anyone applying for housing benefit and council tax benefit has to present the required evidence to their local council; if they apply for jobseekers' allowance, income support or incapacity benefit as well, they have to take similar documents to a Jobcentre Plus/social security office.)
Source: Press release 27.1.03, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: Press release
Date: 2003-Jan
