Minutes:
The Executive Member for Finance considered a report concerning the Housing Benefit Local Scheme.
The report sought approval for the ongoing full disregard of war pensions as income in the calculation of Housing Benefit entitlement.
Housing Benefit was calculated by reference to the amount of income a claimant had over their requirement to meet living costs, or excess income, as defined in regulations. Certain income was disregarded in the calculation, but modifying the standard benefit scheme to disregard prescribed war disablement and war widows’ pensions in full had the effect of reducing the amount of excess income and increasing entitlement to benefit.
Section 134 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 permitted a local authority to modify any part of the housing benefit scheme administered by the authority, subject to adoption by resolution of the authority. Approving the ongoing operation of a modified scheme in Middlesbrough would provide evidence that the authority had so resolved, and that in so doing one of the key principles of the Armed Forces Community Covenant was upheld.
Housing Benefit was funded through government subsidy, but for a modified scheme element a ceiling of 0.2% of the subsidy claimed excluding local scheme cost applied, with 75% of the cost being met by government up to this limit. For benefit paid in 2024-25 the ceiling was £85,788, whilst expenditure was £55,428, and so £41,571 was claimed in subsidy based on the 75% rate provided for. The overall cost of the modification to the Council was therefore minimal, at £13,857.
OPTIONS
The Council could have chosen
not to operate a modified scheme and to have revoked the resolution deemed to
have been made historically, but the financial cost saving would have been
minimal. Therefore, this may have potentially substantially affected the
benefit entitlement of some claimants, who would have lost out on payments of
four times the sum due to the lost central government subsidy. This would have
also required consultation prior to implementation.
The Council could also have
chosen to vary its scheme to allow less than a 100% disregard from income, but
the same imbalance in financial effect as for revoking the resolution would
have resulted.
ORDERED that the Executive
Member for Finance approve the ongoing full disregard of war pensions as income
in the calculation of Housing Benefit entitlement.
REASONS
The decision was required as
the record of the original resolution was no longer held and following receipt
of the Department Work and Pensions audit report on the 2021-22 subsidy claim,
the Section 151 officer was required to provide written confirmation about
Member access to a record of the Council’s modification to the scheme by 21
February 2025.
This was not a key decision
and therefore it did not need to comply with the General Exception and notice
periods as outlined in part 6.32 of the Constitution.
The report did not propose a
change and did not have an impact on the overall budget or policy framework and
therefore met the criteria for Single Executive approval.
Section 134 of the Social
Security Administration Act 1992 permitted a local authority to modify any part
of the housing benefit scheme administered by the authority, subject to
adoption by resolution of the authority.
Middlesbrough Council had
fully disregarded war pensions income since the introduction of Housing Benefit
under the Act in 1992, but the record of the original resolution was no longer
held, and so the decision allowed the Council to meet the requirement of the
Department for Work and Pensions that Members had access to a record of the
Council’s modification to the scheme.
Middlesbrough Council had
approved, annually, in full Council, the disregard of war pensions incomes
under the terms of the local Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which was in
accordance too with the Council’s adoption of the Armed Forces Community
Covenant.
Motion 23/57, “Credit Their
Service”, amended the Discretionary Housing Payments and Disabled Facilities
Grant schemes to disregard Military Compensation and Supplementary payments,
recognising that these were already disregarded in other locally administered
means tested benefits.
Supporting documents: