Exempt accommodation

The request was refused by Darlington Borough Council.

Victoria McDermott

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am interested in understanding more about how your local authority manages its provision of “Exempt Accommodation”.

Exempt Accommodation in these questions is defined in legislation, namely accommodation which provides Housing Benefit claimants with exemption from the main HB rent restriction schemes that have been introduced from January 1996 ie:
• the local reference rent rules; and
• the local housing allowance rules.

1) Please complete the following questions below about the cost of exempt provision in your local authority in 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.

A) How much did you spend on the provision of “exempt accommodation”?
B) How many HB claims did you receive under the exempt rules?

2) Please complete the following questions below about the providers of exempt accommodation in your local authority for each of the following years: 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.

a) Total number of providers who received exempt HB funding
Of which were:
• Registered Providers (registered with the Regulator of Social Housing).
• Registered Charities (Organisations registered with Charity Commission but not with Regulator for Social Housing)
• Community Interest Companies (registered as a CIC on the Companies House register, but not registered with the Regulator of Social Housing or the Charity Commission).
• Local Authority (including those where the Authority is also registered with the Regulator of Social Housing).
• Other

a) Total number of units provided that received exempt HB funding for each of the following years: 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21, of which were provided by:
• Registered Providers (registered with the Regulator of Social Housing).
• Registered Charities (Organisations registered with Charity Commission but not with Regulator for Social Housing)
• Community Interest Companies (registered as a CIC on the Companies House register, but not registered with the Regulator of Social Housing or the Charity Commission).
• Local Authority (including those where the Authority is also registered with the Regulator of Social Housing).
• Other

3) Please can you provide links to or copies of any policy/procedure or guide for the following:
• Strategic document setting out the Authority’s position on exempt HB housing
• Registration of provider/property for exempt HB claims
• Periodic revalidation of provider/property for exempt HB claims
• initial assessment of claims made by claimants for HB under the exempt rules.
• Validation of exempt HB claims in payment
• Ending an exempt HB claims by the Authority due to a concern.

If you have exempt HB accommodation but are unable to provide specific formal documentation please could you set out briefly how you administer each of these scenarios.

4) Please provide information as to the cost to the Authority for each of the following years: 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.
o Overall spend on Administration of Exempt HB
o Of which was administering exempt HB Claims
o Of which was administering provider or property
o Of which was enforcement activity associated with exempt HB

5) Thinking about complaints or action taken on complaints:
• How many complaints did you receive regarding properties registered for exempt provision in each of the following years: 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21?
• How many properties have you removed from your register in each of the following years: 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21?

6) What was the housing solution for Homeless people who presented to the Authority (or its referral agencies) in each of the following years: 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21?
• Number housed in exempt accommodation
• Number housed in Temporary Social Housing
• Number Housed in specialist commissioned services
• Number housed in social housing
• Number housed in PRS
• Number housed in other

7) What is the primary need for Homeless People housed in exempt Accommodation in each of the following years: 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21?
• Ex-offender
• Substance misuse
• Care Leaver
• Young Person
• Mental Health
• Domestic Violence
• Refugee Status

Yours faithfully,

Victoria McDermott

Darlington Borough Council

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Dear Ms Mcdermot

 

Thank you for your request for information, received 21 June 2021. 

 

We are processing your request in accordance with our Freedom of
Information and Environmental Information Request Procedure, which you can
find on our [2]website.

 

While you could ordinarily expect a full response to your request within
20 working days in light of the restrictions currently in place due to
COVID-19 and the need to target our resources at meeting the needs of the
most vulnerable there may be a delay in you receiving a response.  I
apologise in advance, but trust you can appreciate why we are unable to
provide our usual standard of service during the pandemic.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Richie Sanderson

Complaints & Information Governance Assistant

(01325) 406777

 

 

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Darlington Borough Council

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Dear Ms McDermott

 

Request Reference: DBC-0869-21 

Please find attached the Council's response to your request for
information. 

Please accept my apologies for the delay in response to your request.  

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Rachel Seddon

Complaints & Information Governance Assistant

(01325) 406777

 

 

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Victoria McDermott

Dear Rachel,

Thank you for your response. It would be really helpful if you could give me some guidance on which if any elements of my request could be provided within the allotted time.

Yours faithfully,

Victoria McDermott

Freedom of Information, Darlington Borough Council

This document was classified as: OFFICIAL

Dear Ms McDermott

I apologise for the wording in the letter as it indicates we may be able to narrow the search down. In these instances we do usually provide the requester with the information we can retrieve should the request be refined.

I asked the investigating officer if there is any of the request we could help with however due to the way we report we would not be able to answer of these questions so the exemption applies to the whole request.

Again please accept my apologies for the confusion and wording in the letter.

Kind regards

Richie Sanderson
Complaints and Information Governance Assistant

OPERATIONS GROUP
Darlington Borough Council
Town Hall, DL1 5QT, Rm G15
Darlington, DL1 5QT
Direct Line: 01325 406777 (Ext 6777)
Email: [email address]
Visit: www.darlington.gov.uk

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

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