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’. “