Housing for Varying Needs Review - Aberdeen City Council

Housing for Varying Needs ReviewHousing Support ChargesIn 2005, Aberdeen City Council introduced charging for any future residentmoving into sheltered accommodation. This was due to legislation containedwithin the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 and changes in Housing Benefitlegislation. Anyone moving in is offered a financial assessment to clarify what,if any contribution they are required to make towards the cost of service. Thecurrent system of charging for housing support service applies only toresidents taking up occupancy after March 2005.The question relating to charging asked whether respondents agreed ordisagreed that the current system of only some tenants paying for the housingsupport service was fair. 67.2% of respondents to this question eitherdisagreed or strongly disagreed.The second part of this question asked respondents to agree, disagree orstrongly disagree that the Council should consider widening the currentsystem to financially assess all tenants in sheltered housing, on their ability topay for support services, regardless of when they moved in. Just over 57%agreed with this statement and 43% strongly disagreed or disagreed. Thisgroup of 43% were then invited to say why. 523 separate comments werereceived. Further analysis of the comments to extract the common themes willbe undertaken, and also to group the comments in terms of the complexes asa number of the comments relate to whether or not the service is value formoney, and this may be complex specific. The issue of charging clearly needsto be addressed as this has created anger and anxiety for residents during thepast 12 months.ComplaintsWhen asked if they knew how to make a complaint 966 (70%) respondentssaid they did. 1208 respondents said they had not complained about theservices they had received whilst 208 said they had. The results of the nextquestion are skewed because 185 (59%) of respondents commented theywere either satisfied or very satisfied and 119 (39%) were either dissatisfied orvery dissatisfied with the way their complaints were handled. (304 responses).This is a very disappointing result but one where action has already beentaken to improve the responses to complaints.Positively, 98% of respondents agreed that Sheltered Housing and thesupport provided is a good service for older people, but only 47% thoughtsheltered housing could be used for residents other than older people. 48% ofrespondents would not mind if non residents visited their complexes for daycare or other services.The last question asked for further general comments and all of the individualresponses are collated. Some positive and some negative. Again furtheranalysis to extract common themes and identify whether or not they arecomplex specific will be undertaken.76