By 2025, analogue telephone services will be switched off as the UK’s telecoms infrastructure is upgraded to digital connectivity. This shift has major implications for the 1.7 million people who rely on telecare in the UK, and on the organisations that manage health, housing and home care.

Legrand, Erosh, TSA and the Almshouse Association have been working together to create a guide that goes some way to outline the process that is taking place between now and 2025. To find out more, both EROSH and the TSA are running regular regional networking events that will aim over the next few years to support organisations in their journey to digital. Links and contact details can be found in the Digital Switchover Guide.

An almshouse charity has shared the experiences of its younger residents making claims for Universal Credit (UC) which in some cases have proved to be challenging.

“It has been found that in the case of those almshouse charities that are Registered Providers it is critical at the outset that the accommodation is declared as being social rented accommodation. If a charity is not a Registered Provider it will becategorised as private rented accommodation the maximum monthly ‘rent’ paid via Universal Credit is equivalent to the local housing allowance.

The residents, when making the claim, should not indicate that they are accommodated in supported housing on the basis that the typical support provided by almshouse charities is that of Lifeline, Scheme Manager support services etc. which are not deemed to be eligible support costs from a UC perspective. It is also important that when completing the Social Rented Sector verification form the charity as ‘landlord’ should indicate that the resident is not in ‘specified accommodation’, otherwise known as ‘supported exempt accommodation’.

The weekly maintenance contribution (WMC) paid by the resident should be inserted under the ‘basic rent amount’ required on the form; any other housing-related costs in addition to the WMC should be categorised as ‘ineligible service charge amount for UC’. Any difference shown between the resident’s declaration of ‘rent breakdown’ and the ‘landlord’s declaration will result in an anomaly and the resident being asked whether he or she agrees with the landlord’s figures.   

In the case in question, however, the UC office considered the resident’s declaration to relate to ‘supported housing’ without liaising with the local authority’s Housing Benefits Team. It is for the local authority to determine whether the support provided by an almshouse charity to its residents meets the conditions of ‘supported exempt’. In these cases the claimant must claim Housing Benefit to meet the housing costs and it should not form part of the UC claim.

The charity then provided a detailed breakdown of their service charge to the local authority following which the authority confirmed that ‘supported accommodation’ did not apply and that the housing costs would need to be met by UC. However, the referral from the UC office to the local authority which then referred the matter back again led to an undue delay with the resident being nearly five months in arrears in receipt of benefit payments. 

The lessons learned from the experience are:

Try to engage with the resident early on in the process to ensure the declarations made on the UC form are correct.

Liaise with the local authority to obtain a ruling as to whether the nature of support provided by the charity to residents leads to a classification of ‘supported accommodation’ or otherwise.

Check the terminology carefully i.e. ‘supported housing’, ‘specified accommodation’ or ‘supported exempt accommodation’. “

Devonshires Solicitors have provided the Almshouse Association with an informative factsheet regarding the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014 that you can download here.

As far as we are aware, there have been no changes to the Regulations since they came into force in 2015. The Almshouse Association will notify members of any updates in ‘Latest News’.

The Almshouse Association has recently received enquiries from a number of member almshouse charities concerning Trustees’ responsibilities in controlling legionella.

All almshouse providers are legally obliged to arrange for a legionella risk assessment to be carried out:

• The legal requirements concerned result from Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002.
• Guidance in general is the L8 Approved Code of Practice which has special legal status.
• More guidance is in the HSG 274 part 2 section Landlords & HSE. Legionnaires’ disease – Legionella and landlords’ responsibilities (hse.gov.uk)

Once a reputable firm has been appointed to carry out the risk assessment, a senior member of staff or a Trustee should attend a legionella awareness course. The remedial works itemised in the risk assessment should be carried out and monitoring control measures put in place which should be recorded in a logbook. The logbook must be completed each time actions are carried out, such as the cleaning of water tanks, fitting new lids with vents, removing dead leg pipework, cleaning shower heads etc.

There are three steps to compliance with the legislation:

Step 1

Risk Assess the Property: All actions carried out will be based upon the contents of the risk assessment taking into account water supply, storage, form of heating water and hot and cold water distribution, including the outlets. Any remedial works and control schemes stipulated will be included in the document irrespective of whose responsibility it is to take necessary actions.

Step 2

Remedials: Remedial works should be carried out in a planned, prioritised way to reduce the risk of legionella.

Step 3

Put in place control measures: These should relate to individual dwellings as well as communal areas if applicable. Residents should be made aware of their individual responsibilities i.e. regularly cleaning showerheads, informing the charity if the hot water is not working properly or any other problems with the water system. It is important that residents are advised that after periods of absence from their almshouses they should flush through the water system by turning on taps and letting the water run for a while. Residents should be informed to take care when running showers before use as running water at pressure causes an aerosol effect and increases risk to the operator. It is recommended therefore that a plastic bag is placed over shower heads while the system is flushed through.

Training in legionella control is provided by various companies, one of which is Eplus Global Ltd (www.eplusglobal.co.uk) For further information contact Ben French at benfrench@eplusglobal.co.uk,  Mobile: 07788 421651

The Almshouse Association strongly recommends that almshouse charities carry out a Quinquennial Survey (or stock condition report) every 5 years.

Based upon the Quinquennial Inspection Report, trustees should be able to plan routine and cyclical maintenance for the following five years.

A management tool – The quinquennial report is there to:

• help create budgets for repair maintenance and improvements
• help make informed decisions about how to manage the building stock in your trust
• help plan preventive maintenance. The word preventive is the important one – you want to  avoid reactive maintenance – fixing the fault after it has developed and instead think about preventive maintenance – fixing it just before it goes wrong in order to avert all the problems that flow from a building element failing.

Selecting an architect, architectural technician or building surveyor is key.
Trustees should seek references and draw up a short-list. The charity must ensure that the person chosen is someone they feel they can work with and who understands almshouses. A fee basis should be agreed for the project and there may be an element of commission for supervision of repairs and maintenance work.

A Quinquennial Report is very practical as it will give an overview with recommendations for upcoming maintenance issues, enabling the charity to ensure they are not faced with a crisis. One of the Association’s Panel members stated that the Quinquennial allowed trustees to adopt a “stitch in time” approach so that they could spread the cost of future repairs and maintenance.

Many of the Association’s Panel of Consultants undertake Quinquennial Inspections regularly for almshouse charities. Details of Panel members and the areas they cover can be found on our website: www.almshouses.org/panel-of-consultants

The Quinquennial will involve an inspection of the dwellings, inside and out and is carried out with residents present. The charity may be required to provide ladders and, on occasion, a cherry picker.

The report will normally prioritise items that need to be addressed, immediately, in the 1st year, in the 2nd year etc. and will often include an indication of costs for each item. This assists trustees in drawing up both their maintenance plan and budget. The report should suggest priorities for the work and there are 3 main categories for this

• Urgent items that you cannot and must not ignore
• Things that you really ought to do if you can
• The wish list.

The priorities of the surveyor might not coincide with yours, especially if a vacancy occurs giving the chance for refurbishment work. This is where understanding the the fundamental purpose of the report is important. The report should give the ability to be flexible in what you do.  If,  for whatever reason, trustees decide not to do something then they should have made an informed decision.

With a structured programme, if something is not managed one year, then it can be allocated to another year. This is why it is vital that once trustees have established a programme it is renewed every five years. That way anything not done in the front end of the programme can be reassessed and re-prioritised.

Click here for a link to our template Quinquennial Inspection Report