Last week at Prime Minister’s Questions, Theresa May pleased MPs by telling them that the government will not place the same housing benefit cap on supported housing as for private rented accommodation. Supported housing includes long-term accommodation for people with severe disabilities and chronic conditions, as well as short-term housing such as hostels, women’s refuges and safe houses.
This sounded sensible at the time, as domestic abuse charities had been warning that capping the housing benefit paid to the women staying in refuges would mean they would have to close (at an even greater rate than they have already been shutting down). But the temporary relief was followed yesterday by the discovery that short-term supported housing will be taken out of the welfare system and instead funded through grants given to local authorities. These grants will be ring-fenced, but the government consultation published yesterday doesn’t say how much money will be available to already cash-strapped local authorities.
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