Archived decisions

REPORT OF THE

EXECUTIVE MEMBER

SOCIAL CARE

PART II

SUPPORTING PEOPLE

1. Supporting People is a Government initiative which brings together nine funding streams for supported housing and sets up a single pot to be managed by local authorities in partnership with Health Authorities and the National Probation Service.

2. People in contracted services will be eligible for Supporting People subsidy if they are "passported". Tenants on Housing Benefit are automatically passported into the Supporting People programme. After implementation in April, 2003, service users will also be able to apply for a housing benefit type Assessment.

3. For people who are in receipt of full Housing Benefit, their overall situation will remain unchanged in that Supporting People will pay their support change in full.

4. People in receipt of partial housing benefit will be fully passported and as a result will be fully eligible for Supporting People funding. For some people who are paying part of their support charge, Supporting People will now pay for their service in full, and, as a result, will benefit.

5. There are, however, a small number of people who, as a result of support costs being taken out of rent, will lose their eligibility to Supporting People Funding. It is also the case that future tenants will not be eligible for funding whereas they would have been prior to the introduction of Supporting People.

6. In an effort to overcome these anomalies the Executive Member has authorised the implementation of a process whereby those who would have been disadvantaged are safeguarded without opening the programme to a larger number of people who are currently paying for their own services, thus ensuring that nobody suffers as a consequence of the implementation of the programme and the financial risk to the County Council and bureaucracy are minimised.

7. Where a person is already in a service but becomes ineligible for housing benefit directly as a result of support charges being withdrawn from the rent, Housing Benefit Departments will inform the Supporting People team, ensuring that they are included in the service user schedule that is the basis for payments until the first service review.

8. For new tenants the Administering Authority contracts with an agency to carry out Housing Benefit assessments, including support costs. This assessment would be available to people receiving services who it is believed, by themselves or their service provider would have been eligible before 1 April, 2003.

9. The Executive Member has also approved the Supporting People Memorandum of Understanding which defines the constitutional relationship between the County Council and the Commissioning Body, and has recommended its acceptance by the Supporting People Commissioning Body.

Felicity Hindson, MBE

Executive Member for

Social Care

4IR470203