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This benefits news includes an update on several
issues relating to universal credit, housing benefit and government
response to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis, as they affect local
authority benefit services.
Replacement
of the Job Retention Scheme and amended self employed income
support scheme
On 24
September, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced a new in-work Job
Support Scheme to support
businesses and workers affected by Covid-19 for the next six
months.
This will
replace the current job retention furlough scheme which is
scheduled to come to an end at the end of October 2020. He also
announced that the self employed income support scheme would
continue until April 2021, but in an amended form.
These changes
will impact on universal credit claims and local authority
assessments of housing benefit and council tax support claims.
In announcing
the measures, contained in the government’s Winter Economy
Plan, to the House of Commons, the Chancellor said that the
furlough scheme was the right policy when it was introduced in
March 2020 but added that, “as the economy re-opens it is
fundamentally wrong to hold people in jobs that only exist inside
the furlough.”
Instead of
extending the Job Retention Scheme in its current or more targeted
form, therefore, the Chancellor announced that, from 1 November
2020 to 30 April 2021, a new Job Support Scheme will be introduced
“to protect viable jobs in businesses that are facing lower demand
due to Covid-19”.
To be eligible
for the new scheme, employees must be on an employer’s PAYE payroll
on or before 23 September 2020, not be on a redundancy notice and
working and being paid by their employer for at least 33% of their
normal hours.
The Government
will pay 33% of the salary of the employee’s normal hours which are
not worked, up to a cap, with the employer also responsible for
paying a further 33% of the salary for the hours not worked by the
employee.
The chancellor
said that this means employees working 33% of their normal hours
will receive up to 77% of their normal pay. The level of the
government grant will be capped at £697.92 per month.
Employees will
be able to cycle on and off the scheme and do not have to be
working the same pattern each month, but each short-time working
arrangement must cover a minimum period of seven days.
The intention
of the scheme therefore is that employers will continue to pay its
employee for the time worked, but the financial burden of hours not
worked will be split between the employer, the Government (through
wage support) and the employee (through a wage reduction).
However, the
government support provided to employees under this new job support
scheme is clearly significantly less is available under the job retention
scheme, in several ways.
Under the job
retention scheme
- initially provided
government support for 80% of a furloughed employee’s
earnings, reducing to 70% then ending at 60%
- was available to
employees who are not working any hours for their employer
Under the new
job support scheme;
- government support
is limited to 33% of 66% of the employee’s normal earnings
which equates to around 20% (one fifth) of the employees’
normal earnings
- is only available
to workers who are working part time for their employer
Employers will
have to meet a total of around half of their employee’s normal
earnings even though their employee may only be working a third of
normal hours. they will also have to continue to
pay employer national insurance and pension contributions.
Employees will
also be able to claim the Job Retention Bonus if they meet the
eligibility criteria.
“Large
businesses” will have to meet a financial assessment test,
restricting the scheme to those whose turnover is lower now than
before experiencing difficulties from Covid-19. There will be no
qualifying financial assessment test for small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) but
For those who
are self employed and affected by the Covid-19 crisis, the
Chancellor announced that the Self Employment Income Support Scheme
will be extended until 30 April 2021, “to support viable traders
who are facing reduced demand over the winter months”.
An initial
taxable lump sum will cover three months’ worth of profits for the
period from November to the end of January 2021, worth 20% of
average monthly profits up to a total of £1,875.
A second grant
(the level of which will be set in 'due course' and may be adjusted
to respond to changing circumstances) will be available to cover
the period from February 2021 to the end of April 2021.
New support
payment for those required to self isolate
On 21
September 2020, the government confirmed they will be making
available a one-off payment of £500 to those legally required to
self isolate to avoid transmitting coronavirus.
The new
payment has been introduced alongside new legal requirements, from
28 September 2020, for self-isolation for those who have tested
positive for Covid-19, or who have been instructed by NHS Test and
Trace to self-isolate because of possible contact with someone who
has had a positive test result.
From this
date, new fines, ranging from £1,000 to £10,000 have also been
introduced for those failing to self isolate when required to do
so, or knowingly providing false information about close contacts
to NHS Test and Trace.
Eligibility
for the £500 ‘Test and Trace Support’ payment, however, will be
limited only to those people in England who must self isolate, are
unable to work from home and who are claiming qualifying benefits
or working tax credit.
The scheme
will be available from 28 September and will be administered and
paid by local authorities – probably as part of local welfare
assistance schemes.
The government
expects local authorities to have the new scheme up and running by
12 October 2020. Those who start to self-isolate from 28 September
2020 but before the scheme has been set up will be able to receive
backdated payments.
The
eligibility criteria for the payments are provided in updated
Pubic Health England guidance, Stay at
home guidance for households with possible or confirmed coronavirus
(COVID-19) infection.
To be eligible
for the £500 payment, people will need to meet all of the following
criteria:
- have been asked to
self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace
- are employed or
self-employed
- cannot work from
home and will lose income as a result
- claiming at least
one qualifying benefit.
The qualifying
benefits are: universal credit, working tax credit, income-related
employment and support allowance, income-based jobseeker’s
allowance, income support, pension credit or housing benefit. (NB -
local council tax support is not included in the list of qualifying
benefit)
The government
estimates that around 4 million people who are in receipt of
qualifying benefits in England will be eligible for this payment.
The test and
trace support payment is a national extension of the pilot support
payments which have been available since the start of September in
high risk localities including Blackburn with Darwen, Oldham and
Pendle, involving a payment of £13/day to eligible people.
Although full
details have yet to be confirmed, it is likely that the new
national support payment will be treated in the same way as in the
pilot, in that they are intended not to be taken into account as
either earnings, unearned income or capital in the calculation of
all income related benefits.
As far as
housing benefit and council tax support assessments are concerned, LA
Welfare Direct 9/20 , confirms that the
support payment meet the definition for local welfare provision in
housing benefit regulations for working-age claimants and so can be
disregarded, and that as the payments are not listed as income to
be taken into account, they can also be disregarded for pension age
housing benefit claimants.
At the time of
writing, the government has yet to provide details of the data
notification or funding arrangements for the administration and
payment of test and trace support payments.
Update -
Bedroom tax and the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in
JD and A
The July 2020 CBRS
benefits events included a summary
of the October 2019 finding of the European Court of Human Rights
(ECtHR) in JD and A
v The United Kingdom that the application
of the bedroom tax rules unlawfully discriminated against certain
claimants who lived in specially adapted ‘sanctuary scheme’
properties for people at risk of severe domestic violence.
The Grand
Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights refused the UK
Government’s attempt to appeal the ECtHR’s
ruling which meant the case could not be appealed further and that
the decision the bedroom tax rules were unlawful in such
situations, stands.
At the time,
the DWPs said that it was “still considering” the overall impact of
this case and the steps it needs to take in response “and will
notify local authorities once a decision has been taken”.
In LA Welfare
Direct lite 9/20, the DWP has provided an update. However, this
simply confirms that the DWP is still “exploring the next
steps” of the ruling of the Court that the bedroom tax
unlawfully discriminates against those in sanctuary scheme homes.
In the
meantime, the guidance repeats earlier guidance from the DWP
that:
DHPs remain the
appropriate means for providing support where there is an
under-occupancy deduction because of a sanctuary room or sanctuary
scheme.
Treatment
of claimants qualifying for the Severe Disability premium (SDP)
The DWP has
said that the severe disability premium (SDP) transitional payments
in universal credit will convert to a transitional element on 8
October 2020 and paid through the universal credit claim rather
than manually.
More than
15,000 claimants have received transitional payments since January
2020 where they were previously entitled to an SDP as part of their
income-based jobseeker’s allowance, income-related employment and
support allowance or income support award before being migrated to
universal credit following a change in circumstances.
The
transitional payment was made in order to compensate such claimants
who lost out as a result of migration to universal credit.
The Universal
Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments)
Regulations 2019 [SI.No.1152/2019] provide for the conversion
of these transitional payments into transitional elements.
Unlike the
manual SDP transitional payments, the transitional element can be
eroded, for example, where another element included in the
universal credit award increases or when a new element is included
(although not in the case of inclusion of, or an increase in, the
childcare element).
The DWP also
confirmed that the current SDP gateway provisions, preventing
legacy benefit claimants in receipt of the SDP from claiming
universal credit, will come to end from 21 January 2021.
Extension
of the protection from eviction measures
On 27 March
2020 housing possession proceedings were suspended as part of
the emergency temporary measures introduced as a result of the
Coronavirus crisis.
This measure
protected tenants from eviction for three months until the end of
June 2020. On 5 June 2020, the MHCLG announced this would be
extended by a further two months until 23 August 2020.
Following
pressure from a number of organisations, and the continued threat
posed by the coronavirus crisis, new regulations were laid in
August 2020, to further extend the minimum notice period for
eviction of statutory tenants in the private and social rented
sectors in England to six months, albeit with a number of
exceptions where a three month notice period will be required to be
provided.
The Coronavirus
Act 2020 (Residential Tenancies: Protection from Eviction)
(Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 SI.No.914/2020 came into
effect from 29 August 2020 to provide for the extension of Schedule
29 of Coronavirus Act 2020 in England to 31 March 2021 and to
extend the required notice period in England for most social and
private rented sector tenancies to six months.
They provide
exceptions where the tenancy is a Rent Act 1977 protected or
statutory tenancy, a secure tenancy, a flexible tenancy, an assured
tenancy, an assured shorthold tenancy, an introductory tenancy or a
demoted tenancy let by a local authority or housing action trust
where the required notice period will be -
- four weeks, where
at least six months’ rent is unpaid;
- three months, where
the grounds for eviction relate to the tenant’s immigration
status
- three months, where
the tenancy is an assured tenancy and possession is sought
following the death of the former tenant
Where the
grounds for eviction relate to anti-social behaviour, domestic
violence or acquiring the tenancy as a result of a fraud, the same
notice period that applied under the legislation as it had effect
before Schedule 29 came into force in England.
The
regulations do this by disapplying the modifications made by
Schedule 29 where -
- possession of
housing let under a secure tenancy is sought under section 83
of the Housing Act 1985 on Ground 2 in Schedule 2 to
that Act, the discretionary ground for anti-social behaviour.
- possession of
housing let under a secure tenancy is sought under section
83ZA of the Housing Act 1985 on the absolute ground
for anti-social behaviour in section 84A to that Act; or
- possession of
housing let under an assured tenancy or assured shorthold
tenancy is sought under section 8 of the Housing Act
1988 on Ground 7A or 14 in Schedule 2 to that Act which
relates to anti-social behaviour offences.
Contingency
arrangements in the First-Tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal
during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic extended to March 2021
The Acting
Senior President of Tribunals Vice President has amended and
extended two Pilot Practice Directions issued in March 2020 that
set out contingency arrangements in the First-tier Tribunal and
Upper Tribunal during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Pilot
Practice Direction, setting out how the First-tier Tribunal and
Upper Tribunal can adjust their ways of working and panel
composition during the pandemic has been extended to 18 March 2021.
Amendments to
the first of the two Directions - Contingency
Arrangements in the First-Tier Tribunal and the Upper
Tribunal - include
extending the temporary rules to tribunal procedure rules by
the Tribunal Procedure (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Rules
2020 that remove the requirement to hold an oral hearing.
In addition,
the amended Direction includes new guidance on hearings where there
is a mixture of some participants attending the hearing in person
and others attending remotely (known as ‘hybrid hearings’).
In such a
hearing, the places from which remote participants attend the
hearing shall, for the duration of the hearing, be deemed an
extension of the courtroom.
In the second
Practice Direction - Panel
Composition in the First-Tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal , amendments include
the addition of references to the use of former salaried judges,
that incorporates guidance previously effected by a separate Practice
Direction.
Treatment
of Covid-19 compensation payments for means-tested benefit purposes
The DWP has
said that compensation payments made to families of NHS keyworkers
who have died after contracting coronavirus while working on
the frontline are not disregarded when assessing entitlement to
means-tested benefits.
On 14
September 2020, in a question in the House of Commons, the Shadow
secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Jonathan Reynolds queried
this policy, pointing out that other payments of compensation, such
as those made in respect of the Grenfell Tower and Windrush
compensation schemes are disregarded in benefits claims.
In her
response, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Dr
Thérèse Coffey said Covid-19 payments differ from the Grenfell or
Windrush compensation payments because, unlike those situations,
there has been no failure within government;
'... he specifically
referred to some other programmes, where it is absolutely
acknowledged that there has been a complete failure within
Government in that regard ... this is not the case regarding
the NHS but I am sure that, as the NHS is a seperate employer from
the government, it will continue to work with its employees and the
relatives of people who have sadly died.'
Replying, Mr
Reynolds commented ;
'I find that answer
lacking in reason and lacking in compassion.'
In
a written answer on the same day, the Minister for
Welfare Delivery Will Quince advised that;
As the NHS and Social
Care Coronavirus Life Assurance scheme is non-contributory and
taxpayer funded, payments are factored into means-testing to ensure
fairness and affordability for the public purse.'
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