FOI request (FOIR-575746246)

Data regarding housing benefit payments in respect of (supported) exempt accommodation

Requested Tue 09 January 2024
Responded  Thu 14 March 2024

I am writing to request information regarding housing benefit payments in respect of exempt accommodation (also known as supported exempt accommodation) under the Freedom of Information Act.

All information is to be supplied in the format of the Excel spreadsheet in the below Google Drive link. Sheets filled with dummy example data are included in the template to show how I would like the data presented.

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GLTyeDDqfVg-K4aj6jruHwe3ylnGpQyO

The following information is to be provided on the sheet labelled Exempt accommodation full data.

1. Anonymised details for each individual paid housing benefit claim in respect of exempt accommodation by Hastings Borough Council from January 1, 2017 (or a more recent date if information this far back is unobtainable under FOI cost and time limit rules) to December 31, 2023.

2. This information can be provided on a weekly (for example, Dec 18 - Dec 24 2023) or monthly (for example, December 2023) basis, whatever is simplest to compile.

3. Data should include the following details of the claim:

• Unique (anonymised) claimant ID.

• Local authority.

• Exempt accommodation provider.

• Payment period the data entry refers to (weekly or monthly, whichever is simplest. For example, Dec 18 - Dec 24 2023, or December 2023).

• Total amount paid in Housing Benefit for supported exempt accommodation in the above period (direct to landlord or provider).

• Total amount paid in Housing Benefit for supported exempt accommodation in period (to claimant).

• Number of bedrooms in the claim.

• Type of supported exempt accommodation (if known) (for example, mother and baby unit, emergency homeless accommodation).

4. Data should include the following details of the property attached to the claim:

• Unique (anonymised) property ID.

• Approximate anonymised location (for example, ward).

• Property type (for example, apartment, terrace house, and so on).

• Number of bedrooms in the property in period. (Please Note: If this could lead to potentially identifiable data, for example if there are only a small number supported exempt accommodations with exactly 10 rooms, then please exclude this information and mark with '*'.)

5. If it is not possible to provide information to the above level of detail, please instead provide the following summary information, on the sheet Summary data by provider:

a. Data for each exempt accommodation provider on how many claims are paid and how much money over a payment period by Hastings Borough Council from January 1, 2017 (or a more recent date if information this far back is unobtainable under FOI cost and time limit rules) to December 31, 2023.

b. This information can be provided on a weekly (for example, Dec 18 - Dec 24 2023) or monthly (for example, December 2023) basis, whatever is simplest to compile.

c. Data should include the following details:

• Local Authority.

• Exempt accommodation provider.

• Payment period (week and year, or month and year, whichever is simplest).

• Number of Housing Benefit claims for supported exempt accommodation.

• Total amount paid in Housing Benefit for supported exempt accommodation in period (direct to landlord or provider).

• Total amount paid in Housing Benefit for supported exempt accommodation in period (to claimant).

Response

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.

Please find attached, the requested spreadsheet.

It is not possible to gather the data requested in the first option as this would take exceed the time limit set by the Information Commissioner's Office. Please see below, the Notice of Refusal.

The spreadsheet gathers the data requested in the second list is attached. The period given covers 01/01/2017 to 31/12/2023.

The totals given are for the entire period rather than week, month or year as once again the only way to gather the shorter periods is to go into each claim which would take exceed the time limit set by the Information Commissioner's Office. Please see below, the Notice of Refusal.

There are no claims paid to customers as providers request that the payment of Housing Benefit is made directly to the landlord and this is allowed under the scheme.

NOTICE OF REFUSAL

The information requested would require us to manually check each customer record. We have over 1000 claims and is estimated to check would take 3 minutes per claim. This would far exceed the time limit set out by the Information Commissioner. 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 part of your request.

Attachments

• FOIR-575746246_FOIR-575746246_1-010117-311223.xlsx