Means testing for Housing Grants (Intermediate)

Overview

Anyone needing adaptations to be made to a dwelling to facilitate occupancy by a disabled person can apply to their local authority for financial assistance in carrying out the work.

Any grant made will depend on the cost of the work to be done, and of the financial circumstances of the disabled person.

Course purpose

To enable those who already have some experience of the disabled facilities grant means-testing process to update and expand their knowledge.

The course follows the overall structure of the scheme: - applications, personal allowances and premiums, the assessment of income and capital - but is designed to give space to allow for consideration of the issues that cause most difficulty in practice.

• Relevant persons and applicants
• Tenants and owners
• Grants for children and young people
• Grant recovery
• Age rules - what is "the qualifying age for state pension credit"?
• The carer's and severe disability premiums
• Assessing the incomes of the self-employed
• Treatment of Employment and Support Allowance
• Income and capital from trusts arising from personal injury compensation
• Policies of life assurance
• April amendments to DFG legislation relating to Council Tax Reduction schemes, and the Personal Independence Payment
• Outline of Universal Credit and how it maps to the DFG scheme

Course objectives

• Decide who is, or is not, eligible to apply for a grant in difficult cases
• Decide when the means-test is being applied to a tenant or an owner
• Identify who comprises the relevant person's "family"
• Be comfortable that they can spot the unusual as well as the usual in awarding personal allowances and premiums
• Understand what comprises income & capital, what is taken into account, and where specific amounts are ignored
• Understand the mathematics of the calculation of contribution to cost of works
• Calculate self-employed income, tax and national insurance

Course structure

• On screen presentations
• Demonstration examples
• Participant case studies
• Open discussion

Who this course is for

Anyone with experience of the housing grants system, and/or who have attended the Introductory course, who wishes to refresh, update and expand their knowledge.

Who this course is NOT for

Those entirely new to means-testing for housing grants, who should attend the Introductory course first