FOI request (FOI-93262169)

Dear Sir/Madam

I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Please note that this request *begins with question 5*. There are no questions 1-4; I deleted them from a trial version of this request and, given how much cross-referencing exists between the later questions, I couldn't be bothered to renumber the rest of the request.

Some councils have ALMOs. I am sending questions 8-19 directly to ALMOs. If any other questions should be handled by the council's ALMO rather than the council itself, please forward those questions to the ALMO as well.

Bedroom tax

This section is heavily dependent on the data the council routinely records. Therefore, if the information for any question from 5-7 is not routinely recorded, please mark the question as 'information not held' and fulfil the remainder of this request.

5. How many households are currently subject to the Spare Room Subsidy ('bedroom tax')?

6. Of the households that are currently subject to the Spare Room Subsidy ('bedroom tax'), how many include a current recipient of Employment Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefit or the Personal Independence Payment?

7. How many of the households referred to in response to question 6 are recipients of a disabled facilities grant for their current accommodation?

Universal Credit rent arrears

If the council does not have its own council housing or ALMO housing stock, please ignore questions 8-19 and proceed straight to question 20 in the next section.

8. How many council housing tenant households are there overall?

9. Of the households referred to in response to question 8, how many are currently in arrears on their rent by at least one month?

10. Of the households referred to in response to question 8, how many are currently in arrears on their rent by at least two months?

PLEASE NOTE - THE FIGURE FOR QUESTION 9 SHOULD INCLUDE THE HOUSEHOLDS REFERRED TO IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION 10.

11. How many council housing tenant households currently receive Housing Benefit (not Universal Credit)?

12. Of the households referred to in response to question 11, how many are currently in arrears on their rent by at least one month?

13. Of the households referred to in response to question 11, how many are currently in arrears on their rent by at least two months?

PLEASE NOTE - THE FIGURE FOR QUESTION 12 SHOULD INCLUDE THE HOUSEHOLDS REFERRED TO IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION 13.

14. How many council housing tenant households currently receive Universal Credit?

15. Of the households referred to in response to question 14, how many are currently in arrears on their rent by at least one month?

16. Of the households referred to in response to question 15, how many are currently in arrears on their rent by at least two months?

PLEASE NOTE - THE FIGURE FOR QUESTION 15 SHOULD INCLUDE THE HOUSEHOLDS REFERRED TO IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION 16.

17. How many council housing tenant households currently receive Universal Credit, whose Universal Credit claim was opened after 1st April 2018?

With regard to question 17, a claim was "opened" when it started; subsequent alterations to the claim (due to variations in monthly earnings, for example) are irrelevant. Regarding households that moved into the local authority area after 1st April 2018 but had (or may have had) a pre-existing Universal Credit claim already in operation - please categorise these at your discretion, based on what is administratively easiest.

18. Of the households referred to in response to question 17, how many are currently in arrears on their rent by at least one month?

19. Of the households referred to in response to question 17, how many are currently in arrears on their rent by at least two months?

PLEASE NOTE - THE FIGURE FOR QUESTION 18 SHOULD INCLUDE THE HOUSEHOLDS REFERRED TO IN RESPONSE TO QUESTION 19.

Social housing refusals

20. In 2017/18, how many households towards whom the council had accepted a main homeless duty had their nomination for housing as a homeless household refused by a social housing landlord (including the council itself)?

21. In 2017/18, how many of the households referred to in response to question 20 had their nomination for housing refused by a social housing landlord on grounds of affordability or limited entitlement to welfare assistance? Please break this figure down by each social landlord if possible.

To provide clarity on questions 20 and 21 - councils accept a main homeless duty to households. They then nominate those households to social housing landlords in order to house them. Social housing landlords can refuse. That refusal might be due to the household failing an assessment of whether they could afford the rent, and/or limited entitlement to welfare assistance (i.e. their benefits won't cover the rent). This is what questions 20 and 21 are about.

If the council does not record the reason for refusals, please exclude question 21 and fulfil the remainder of this request.

I would like responses via email using the attached spreadsheet. Please contact me if you require any clarifications.

This request concerns housing; therefore it should not be aggregated with any other request I have lodged with the council regarding matters aside from housing.

NOTICE OF REFUSAL

The information requested in respect of Q20-21 would require us to manually 300 shortlists to check each customer records, this would far exceed the time limit set out by the Information Commissioner therefore under S12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000 provides an exemption from the obligation to comply with a request for information if the estimated costs of complying with that request would exceed the prescribed appropriate limit.

We estimate that the costs of complying with your request would exceed the appropriate limit by a significant amount.

For this reason we feel unable to comply with this request.