FOI request (FOIR-325820028)

Homelessness

Requested Wed 14 April 2021
Responded  Wed 19 May 2021

This is a lengthy request, but every question asks for statistical data - there are no questions that require the location of documents or similar.

Homelessness

1. The number of households who were initially assessed for eligibility for homelessness support each month in January, February and March 2021 (regardless of the outcome of that assessment).

2. The number of households in question 1 who were assessed as owed the prevention duty, each month in January, February and March 2021.

3. The number of households in question 1 who were assessed as owed the relief duty as the outcome of their initial assessment (that is, not at the end of their prevention duty), each month in January, February and March 2021.

4. The number of households who were assessed as owed the main housing duty between January and March 2021 inclusive (N.B. this will include households whose initial assessment was prior to January 2021. Question 4 is not limited to those households covered in the question 1 response).

5. The number of households who were owed the relief duty, between January and March 2021 inclusive, at the end of their prevention duty (N.B. this will include households whose initial assessment was prior to January 2021. Accordingly, question 5 is not limited to those households covered in the question 1 response.

Council Housing Rent

Questions 6-14 apply to council housing tenants, including tenants of Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs). If the council does not have council housing or an ALMO, please proceed to question 15.

In these questions, the council may use four weeks, 30 days or similar, instead of 'one month', and double those figures for 'two months', depending on how it records the information.

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

7. How many council housing tenant households are currently in arrears on their rent by at least one month?

8. How many council housing tenant households are currently in arrears on their rent by at least two months?

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

10. How many council housing tenant households currently receiving Housing Benefit are currently in arrears on their rent by at least one month?

11. How many council housing tenant households currently receiving Housing Benefit are currently in arrears on their rent by at least two months?

12. How many council housing tenant households currently receive the housing costs element of Universal Credit? If the housing costs element can't be identified, please give figures for those in receipt of Universal Credit regardless of the specific elements (please specify if this is the case).

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

14. Of the households referred to in response to question 12, how many are currently in arrears on their rent by at least two months?

DHP applications

15. For each month since January 2021 (inclusive), please state how much was awarded in Discretionary Housing Payments that month (monetary value).

16. For each month since January 2021 (inclusive), please state how much was awarded in DHPs that month based on the impact on the claimant of the benefit cap (monetary value).

17. For each month since January 2021 (inclusive), please state how many new awards of DHPs were made that month (numerical value, not monetary value).

18. For each month since January 2021 (inclusive), please state how many new awards of DHPs were made that month where the award was based on the impact on the claimant of the benefit cap (numerical value, not monetary value).

NRPF

19. Please state how many applications for homelessness support since 1st April 2020 have been rejected due to the applicant being ineligible for public funds under No Recourse to Public Funds rules - this is an overall figure, not a monthly one.

If the information for any question - particularly question 19 - cannot be sourced within the section 12 cost limit, please mark that question 'information not held' and respond to the rest of the request.

Response

Q1 to Q5 - Information provided below is draft and may be subject to change. Final quarterly information will be published at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness

Q1: • Jan = 75 • Feb = 84 • Mar = 97

Q2: • Jan = 35 • Feb = 36 • Mar = 47

Q3: • Jan = 40 • Feb = 47 • Mar = 50

Q4: • Total main duty decisions made = 65, of which 38 were main duty decisions - acceptances (homeless, unintentionally homeless and in priority need)

Q5: • 18

Q6 to Q14: • The Council does not own any Council social housing stock. The Council's housing stock was transferred to 1066 Housing Association (now Optivo) in 1996 as part of a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT).

Q15 to Q18 • We do not hold the information - there is no way to output the information held in the way that is being requested (that is, it is not possible to give month by month breakdowns). We would have to look at every single award individually to extract the requested information and then total the results, 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.

Q19 • We provide advice to all households who present to us requiring housing/homelessness advice either by our Community Contact Centre or if they are homeless or due to be homeless within 56 days by our Housing Officers. Of those households who received housing advice/support from a housing officer, only 2 were found to have no recourse to public funds.