2012 - Festival Housing

WELFARE REFORM ACTYou may have seen on thetelevision or in the newspapersthat this Act came in to force on8th March 2012. The keychanges that will effect you areas follows:April 2013Tenants of working age whoclaim housing benefit will see areduction in their benefit forevery spare room in their home.Housing benefit rules will allowone bedroom for each person orcouple BUT■ Children under the age of 16of the same sex will beexpected to share a room■ Children under the age of 10will be expected to share aroom even if they aredifferent sexes.The reductions will only applywhere both the claimant andtheir partner are under statepension credit age. In 2013 thiswill be 61, but it will rise in linewith rises in the pension ageand is likely to be 66 by 2020.How much couldyou lose?The Government are cuttinghousing benefit by 14% for oneextra bedroom and by 25% fortwo or more extra bedrooms.Allocations PolicyThis is being changed toincorporate the above guidelinesOctober 2013Universal Credit is introducedwhich will replace housingbenefit, income support, jobseekers allowance, employmentsupport allowance, child tax andworking tax credit.From October 2013 all newclaimants will receive a monthlypayment of Universal Creditpaid direct to themselves. Thiswill include the housing benefitwhich was previously paid toFestival. You will then have topay a month’s rent to Festival.From 2013 – 2017 existingclaimants will move over on toUniversal credit on a rollingprogramme. Initially on thepoint of a change incircumstance such as movinghouse or the birth of a child.Then on a geographical basisacross the country. Thesequence has not yet beenannounced.Help availableIf you think this may effect you,please contact your IncomeManagement and FinancialInclusion Officer as soon aspossible and they will be happyto help.For further information contact Mike Shaw on 01684 579409 or email mshaw@festivalhousing.orgWe’retackling fraudAt Festival we are taking part ina national anti fraud campaign.We will be comparing ourrecords with other organisationsto help us look at unlawful sublettingand also tenants who arerenting more than one property.The campaign has come fromthe Homes and CommunitiesAgency and is being funded byWychavon District Council.We will be using up to date datamatching technology to identifywhere our tenancy details donot match those of peopleobtaining credit from the sameaddress. Whilst we will notassume there is fraud, if we findinconsistencies we do have aduty to make sure that all of thepublic money we receive forhousing is protected and usedappropriately.The sharing of information inthis way is allowed within theprovisions of the AuditCommission Act 1998, and theterms of the Data ProtectionAct 1998.Festival Flyer Summer 2012 25