FOI request (FOIR-790610223)

I would like to request from your Housing Benefits department information regarding how the decision is made to allow or disallow certain services as eligible under Housing benefit when the cost of the service is included as a Service Charge made by a landlord within a Housing Benefit claim. 

To prevent any potential and natural concerns:

I would like to make it clear at the outset of this FOI request that I do not have any commercial connections to, or any interests in, any such service or the providers of such a service that I mention in this FOI request.

I am not making this FOI request on behalf of any person who does and I am simply requesting the information as a member of the public for my own personal use.

I respectfully ask that you do not focus only on the service that I detail below as there are many other similar services from many different providers and the same criteria would apply.

My example service type

The OKEachDay service is facilitated by a small unit that contains a sim card which is plugged into a normal 13-amp socket anywhere within the tenant’s home. 

It requires that a tenant or resident simply press a button on the unit each day before an agreed time to check that the tenant or resident is okay.

On the OKEachDay website it states:

OKEachDay regularly confirms the occupancy of a property and helps you have better two-way contact with older people and others with higher needs.

And further down…

The nature of contact delivered through OKEachDay is different depending on the version, e.g. housing providers use our contact to exchange information about repairs, bills and property related matters. 

We also have versions for care and support organisations and private individuals. Only OKEachDay combines technology like our OKEachDay button, messaging and analytics – with skilled human contact in this way.

Ref URL: https://www.alertacall.com/okeachday/

It may be that you have never encountered the OKEachDay service before but that is irrelevant to this FOI request as it is just an example and there will undoubtedly be an equivalent or similar service that other Housing Benefit claimants who require such services would choose to use.

It is important to note that it is not only Local Authorities, Housing Associations, other social housing providers or private landlords who are able to contract services of this type because individuals or family members of individuals can do so as well.

It is my limited understanding that the cost for these services would normally be included within the total rent figure of a tenanted home as an element of a Service Charge.

It is my further understanding that when assessing, or in the case of reassessing, a claim for Housing Benefit where this type of service is present within the Service Charge, the Head of Benefits must decide what category the service falls under and that would be a factor in the decision to allow the service to be eligible for Housing Benefit or not.

I respectfully ask that you do not focus only on the OKEachDay service that I detail above as there are many other similar services from many different providers and I include OKEachday as an example as that is the service that I am most familiar with.

Please state if you would (or have) allowed or disallowed the OKEachDay service, or a similar service by a different provider, as eligible under Housing Benefit and why?

If you provide your own “in-house” service of the type such as or similar to the one that I described above or one provided by a preferred third-party:

Please state if you would (or have) allowed or disallowed it as eligible under Housing Benefit and why?