Anxiety around the government’s proposal to cap housing benefit for tenants in sheltered housing has been growing ever since it was mooted, almost a year ago.
The announcement on 15 September by the work and pensions secretary Damian Green did nothing to quell those fears. Indeed, older people and providers of specialist housing are now faced with an even longer period of uncertainty.
Possibly the most shocking thing about the lengthy statement is the fact that it managed to omit any mention at all of older people.
Specialist retirement housing enables older people to live independently for longer, it means people are less likely to have a fall or be isolated and makes them less likely to need higher levels of support from more expensive health services. But inevitably, it has slightly higher costs than mainstream housing.
Green’s statement did provide some clarity. We now know that a 1% rent cut for supported housing will be applied for three years, up to and including 2019/20. We also know that the proposed local housing allowance cap on housing benefit for social tenants will now be deferred for another year, until 2019/20, at which point a new funding model will be brought in. And we know that the government will publish a consultation on this shortly.
But neither the rent cut nor the proposed cap on housing benefit can be considered in isolation. What matters is the overall impact on income for housing providers like ourselves and the knock-on effect on the viability of specialist housing schemes across the country.
We know there will be some protection for short-term accommodation such as hostels and refuges. What we don’t know, because they didn’t get a mention, is what the cap means for older people. While this is hugely disappointing it’s not surprising.
We have argued for a long time that successive governments have failed to think in a joined-up way about older people’s issues and that this is fuelling the challenges for the NHS among many other areas.
As the Ready for Ageing Alliance pointed out in a paper (pdf) published on 16 September, the government’s chief scientific adviser says government “will require a coordinated response between departments that reflects the robust evidence for the interconnectedness of policies affected by ageing”.
It is vital that the proposals for the new funding model do not put additional demands on the hard-pressed NHS and that the needs of some of the oldest and most vulnerable people are protected.
Anchor, along with Hanover and Housing & Care 21, provide specialist housing to many thousands of older people. We, as well as many others in the sector, are united in our desire to work closely with government to ensure the needs of some of the oldest and most vulnerable people are protected. Vulnerable older people benefit from sheltered housing in terms of improving their lives and saving money for the NHS and this continued uncertainty is hugely unhelpful for older people and providers.
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