ABC welcomes more money to help those facing housing benefit

[Kintyre Forum News]

Council welcomes more money to help people facing housing benefit challenges

ARGYLL and Bute Council has been awarded a £251,713 of £5 million of funding aimed at supporting people who have been affected by changes to housing benefit which came into force earlier this year.

The extra funding has been provided by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to help areas which face particular population challenges and where it can be more difficult for people to deal with the financial effects of under occupancy restrictions.

The changes to housing benefit mean that people who live in a house which is bigger than they need may have their benefits cut and have to make up any rent shortfall themselves.

They may do this by finding work, increasing the hours that they work, taking a lodger, seeking higher contributions from family members or moving to a smaller property – but, in remote and rural communities like Argyll and Bute, this can often prove difficult.

Argyll and Bute Council can offer assistance to people facing difficulty by way of a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) and the extra funding will be used to help the council make these awards. This increases the total funding for Discretionary Housing Payments to £404,914 for 2013/14. Tenants who have been affected by housing benefit changes and are finding it difficult to manage, should feel encouraged to make an application – forms can be found on Argyll and Bute Council’s website. The council wants to make every effort to ensure best use is made of these monies and that it reaches those in need of help.

The local authority has also been given £11,222 to provide additional help for people affected by the housing benefit reforms and this will be used in a variety of ways including providing homelessness support, money advice or assistance with housing-related costs like moving, advance rent payments and landlord deposits.

Argyll and Bute Council’s Lead Councillor for Housing, George Freeman, said: “The changes to benefits have been coming into force over the past few months and this extra funding is very welcome indeed. We do face considerable challenges in Argyll and Bute in terms of access to affordable housing.

“Although there is a lot of effort being made to tackle this, working in partnership with Argyll and Bute’s registered social landlords, our share of the £5 million will help us to support the local people in our communities who are dealing directly with the impact of housing benefit reform. This, along with the other initiatives that the council is working on such as the Local Authority Mortgage Scheme, will help to ease the burden for many people and prevent homelessness in some cases.”

Additional information:

On 30 July the Department of Work and Pensions announced £5 million of funding for the country’s 21 least densely populated areas, including Argyll and Bute, for the 2013/14 financial year.

Argyll and Bute Council’s share of this is £251,713.

The £11,222 funding from the UK Government is intended to be used for targeted support to help meet the needs of people affected by housing benefit reforms.