Housing Benefit (Local Housing Allowance and Information Sharing) Amendment Regulations 2007

My Lords, it is a matter for local authorities. I think I am right in saying that in the pilots the amount that was finally spent on money advice was less than originally anticipated. If I am wrong on that, I will write to the noble Lord. Essentially, it is up to local authorities. The noble Lords, Lord Oakeshott and Lord Skelmersdale, focused on whether local authorities should be proactive in dealing with vulnerable people. The previous guidance said that local authorities did not need to be proactive in identifying vulnerable claimants. Noble Lords will be pleased to know that the current version removes that stricture and encourages local authorities to act in the interests of claimants. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, asked why we have four sets of regulations. There are two main sets of regulations that need to be amended. One of those relates to working-age claimants and the other to pension credit claimants. Those users need only look at one shorter set of regulations for the local housing allowance amendments instead of a single combined set, which would be twice as long. The noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, asked about the 12-month review of vulnerability. The new version of the guidance says that where a condition is likely to be of a long-term nature, it may be decided that it is not appropriate to set a review date. He also asked what help had been provided to support rollout and whether the national rollout would run less smoothly than the Pathfinders. We have worked extremely hard with Pathfinder authorities to develop and publish a range of support material for the wider national rollout. We provided a comprehensive guidance manual and implementation task sheets, which describe a range of good practices from the appointment of project managers to liaison with landlords. Those are built on the experiences of Pathfinder areas. There is a comprehensive training package and communication material such as leaflets and information letters. On the question of whether the new arrangements are more efficient, the pilots showed that processing times for the local housing allowance were on average 33 days, compared to 42 days for private sector claims under current arrangements. That is a not insignificant improvement. The noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, suggested that landlords would allege arrears to receive direct payments. There is no evidence of that in the Pathfinders. As we have discussed, 84 per cent of customers are receiving their benefits themselves and are paying their rent reliably. Of the remaining 16 per cent, three-quarters have their benefit paid to their landlord because of discretionary safeguards that work to stop arrears getting out of hand. Only a quarter had their benefit paid to their landlord because they got into arrears of eight weeks or more. The noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, raised, as I had anticipated, the issue of single room rent. We are aware that sharing is common among younger people. Three-quarters of single young people without children and who are not on housing benefit live in shared accommodation. We do not think, therefore, that it is unreasonable to expect young housing benefit tenants to share accommodation. Abolishing the single room rate would mean that young tenants in receipt of housing benefit could potentially access accommodation that would be unrealistic for a large proportion of their peers. However, we acknowledge that the single room rent causes difficulties for some people for whom remaining in the family home is not an option. However, less than a fifth of customers bound by the single room rent live in shared accommodation; in fact, the majority life in self-contained accommodation. I should say that officials have been carrying out some analysis of the single room rent and looking at the availability, accessibility and affordability of shared housing for young benefit recipients. We are particularly grateful for the help and discussions we have had with the noble Lord, Lord Best, and the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, who, unfortunately, are unable to be with us today. They have a wealth of experience in this area and will know from recent meetings that it has been determined that many people on housing benefit stop claiming after a short period. We need to understand why that is the case and where those young people end up. I hope that I have dealt with each—