Guidance

LA Welfare Direct 6/2020

Updated 11 December 2020

1. Editorial

We are now into week eleven of the lockdown and local authorities (LAs), just like the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), are facing challenging times. We understand and acknowledge you are unable to deliver a normal Housing Benefit (HB) service during these unprecedented times yet, to your credit, you continue to deliver at excellent levels. Clare Elliott’s letter to Revenue and Benefits managers on 28 May 2020 further supports this ongoing acknowledgement.

In my area of the Local Authority Partnership, Engagement and Delivery (LA-PED) division we have set up a COVID-19 Virtual Team to track and progress specific HB related issues and requests raised by both LAs and DWP Partnership Managers. We then use our bulletins to communicate the progress of these. LA-PED acts as a bridge between DWP Operations and LAs to address issues and communicate resolutions.

To date we have dealt with in excess of 600 queries and we are working with policy colleagues to provide clarity on a small number of these that are still outstanding. As always, the outcomes will be communicated to you.

So, for all of us, things have quickly become the new normal; homeworking and virtual meetings to name just two. Indeed, we recently held a joint Skype meeting of the LA Welfare Steering Group, Practitioners’ Operational Group and LA Funding Group. I have to say the technology held up very well and everyone on the call made positive contributions to the discussion. This stands us in good stead for our consultation arrangements going forward.

However, we are now in that slightly unnerving position of, having just gotten used to all the adjustments, having to think about further adjustments and recoveries as the government starts to ease up certain restrictions.

To that end, we will be starting to think about what that all means for how our division operates and all the measures currently in place for HB in response to the crisis. We will do this carefully and in a measured way; consulting with LAs and your representative groups along the way and communicating out to you at the earliest possible time.

In the meantime, please stay safe and be well.

Darren Baker
Head of Change & Communications
Fraud, Error & Debt Team

2. Temporary absence from home outside Great Britain

1. We are aware that there are claimants who travelled outside Great Britain (GB), expecting to return within their allowable period of absence under the Housing Benefit regulations, but have been prevented from returning due to travel restrictions outside GB. Easements are now in place which allow people to remain entitled to HB where they have been temporarily prevented from returning to GB due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

2.. Regulation 7 of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/213) and the Housing Benefit (persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) regulations 2006 (SI 2006/214) has not been amended. Therefore, the usual rules on not subletting and having an intention to return still continue to apply to any period of temporary absence.

3. If you have any questions about this article you can email [email protected].

3. Replacement of UC47 form and process for landlords

4. There is a new online service for landlords to request direct payments of rent or rent arrears. It replaces the existing UC47 process.

5. The new digital form is known as ‘Landlord application for direct rent and/or arrears payments’. This replaces the UC47 form titled ‘Landlord request for a managed payment/rent arrears deduction’.

6. All private landlords and social landlords (with tenants who are not on the landlord portal) will now use this digital form to request:

• a Managed Payment to Landlord (MPTL) Alternative Payment Arrangements (APA)
• repayment of rent arrears from their Universal Credit (UC) tenant

7. Whilst there is a new form and process, the criteria for accepting an APA request has not changed.

8. Landlords should use this service to request payment of rent directly from a tenant’s UC entitlement, if a tenant is having difficulty paying their rent.

9. Guidance on when to request a MPTL and/or rent arrears deduction from a tenant’s UC entitlement can be found in the Universal Credit and rented housing: guide for landlords.

4. Reminder: HB IP address collection

10. Further to our article in LAWD4/2020, we can confirm the collection of HB IP (Internet Protocol) addresses for online HB claims is now live. Your IT software suppliers and online claims providers (where an online claims service is provided) have made the necessary changes for this to be implemented.

11. We realise that as a consequence of COVID-19 related pressures there may have been some system release freezes due to your resources being utilised elsewhere.

12.This is a reminder to ask local authorities (LAs), where possible, to ensure the latest software release has been downloaded and, where applicable, you are using your new online claim form so the HB IP address is visible in your SHBE (Single Housing Benefit Extract) returns.

13. If you have any questions about this project you can email [email protected].

5. HB Service timetable and results spreadsheet

14. We wrote to LAs in February 2020 to launch the HB Award Accuracy Initiative and issued circular HB A5/2020.

15. Since that time, the Local Authority Partnership, Engagement and Delivery division (LA-PED) has received enquiries from a number of LAs to clarify when and how they should return their HB Matching Service results (HBMS).

16. In order to provide clarity, below is an extract of the HBMS timetable headers with an explanation on what the data in each column represents:

Day of Transfer	Relevant month	Earliest data extraction date	Data transfer date	Local Authority name	Local Authority number
Monday	April-20	07/04/2020	14/04/2020	Blackpool	12302

• Day of Transfer - this represents the day within the week you should send back your HBMS results

• Relevant Month - the timetable represents a period of a year so an LA should ensure they are sending their HBMS return on the correct date within the relevant month

• Earliest data extraction date - this date should be used for extracting your SHBE data

• Data transfer date - This signifies the date an LA should send their HBMS results back to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

• Local Authority name - this forms part of the timetable to ensure each LA send their HBMS returns back in a staggered approach

• Local Authority number- unique identifier for each LA

17. Following the receipt of the LA HBMS return to DWP, your HBMS file will then be issued to you through Transfer your Files (TYF) within 2 weeks following the data transfer date. An email will be sent to whomever is responsible for TYF within each LA.

18. Although you are now receiving your HBMS files through TYF, current guidance on ‘How to complete the HBMS results spreadsheet’ states to email your HBMS results via to [email protected]. This has not changed and you can find the full guidance on Glasscubes.

19. LA-PED are looking at the feasibility of migrating the current email process so that LAs can upload their HBMS returns to TYF in the future. We will write to you if this happens.

6. Urgent final reminder: Discretionary Housing Payment end-of-year monitoring returns 2019 to 20

20. Thank you to those LAs that have completed their Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) monitoring returns for the period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020, as originally requested in bulletin LAWD4/2020 lite.

21. This is an urgent request for those LAs who have yet to complete their returns to do so by a further extended deadline of 12 June 2020.

22. Whilst completion of these returns is voluntary the more we receive the more it helps us to better understand expenditure of DHPs across English and Welsh LAs and informs future planning.

23. We would be grateful if you could complete and return the form to [email protected] by the deadline at the very latest.

24. Here is a copy of the monitoring form.

7. Cases with the Upper Tribunal

HB decisions by the Upper Tribunal

25. Decision Making and Appeals (DMA) Leeds is aware of the following HB cases that have been decided by the Upper Tribunal (UT):

• CSH/356/19: – Appeal dismissed, no objective reason to suggest that the hearing was unfairly conducted, whether by reason of failure to apply First-tier Tribunal rule 2(2)(c) or otherwise, furthermore establishing a right to reside was doomed to fail as the claimant could not meet the requirements of Regulation 10.

HB cases awaiting decision by the Upper Tribunal

26. Decision Making and Appeals (DMA) Leeds have been made aware of the following HB case that is awaiting decision by the Upper Tribunal, since our previous entry in January 2020.

• CH/2902/16: This HB appeal in essence is about whether a self-employed person can retain their ‘worker’ status if they ceased self-employment for reasons other than the physical constraints of the late pregnancy (under Gusa) and then gave birth (under St Prix and Dakneviciute). DWP decided not to join this appeal as a party.

27. A selection of decisions of the UT are published on their website. Do be aware that there is an undefined time lapse between decisions being issued and their appearance on the website.

28. If you have any queries about cases before the UT Judges or courts, please contact us by email at quarryhouse[email protected].

8. New Legislation

29. The following Statutory Instruments (SI) has been laid:

• 2020 No. 522 The Universal Credit (Coronavirus) (Self-employed Claimants and Reclaims) (Amendment) Regulations 2020

30.The following Statutory Rule (SR) of Northern Ireland has been laid:

• 2020 No. 85 The Universal Credit (Coronavirus) (Self-employed Claimants and Reclaims) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020

31. Copies of SIs can now be downloaded from legislation.gov.uk

What’s new on our HB pages

32. The following items can be found on the website link shown:

Document Type	Subject	Link
LAWD5/2020	Editorial update: Customer Information System Interest Automation and Pension Strategy Computer System uprating projects Invite to LAs: Data Sharing and IT Issues Consultation and Engagement Forum Disguised remuneration schemes Reminder: Correct MGP1LA process Update: Change to Local Authority Performance, Engagement and Development division generic email addresses HB Decisions with the Upper Tribunal New Legislation What’s new on our HB pages on www.gov.uk	LAWD5/2020
S7/2020	Additional New Burden funding to meet the costs of implementing Local Housing Allowance changes 2020-21	S7/2020