Finding Employment & Effect on Benefits

What to do when your Resident wants to get a job

Several key questions impact the guidance you give to a resident asking for help finding work:

1. Emotional Wellbeing
2. Practical Considerations
3. Financial Implications

Sustaining employment will always be one of the ultimate goals for your residents and successful independent living will usually involve employment, for those who have the ability and emotional resilience to hold down a job.  Getting a job is not, however, a panacea and the whole point of supported housing is to release residents from the pressure of getting a job, until underlying issues have all been dealt with.

The first thing to consider when formulating a strategy to get your residents back into work is whether they are in fact ready to go back to work. This is, of course, the most obvious of all questions but is definitely worth considering seriously. It may be that before a resident can actively seek work some other issues need dealing with. The issues that formerly homeless people can struggle with are often not compatible with a working life e.g. anger management, personal hygiene, time-keeping. Before you form an action plan, work out where the person is along their employment journey.  

It is very common for a resident to do well, get a job and then have a massive relapse because they can not cope. It is a well-known cycle and the best support is to focus on all the other items in their support plan first.

Practical Considerations

Think about the social skills and emotional maturity needed to hold done a job – work on these

• Start with your purposeful activity programme and work up to volunteering for another organisation.
• Make sure they get a weekly reference or conduct / ability report.
• Help them write skills-based CVs that match the Job Description and Person Specification. This means a new CV for each role they apply for.
• If they have unspent convictions make sure they take the Clean Sheet membership module and gain access to employers who accept applications from people with convictions.  
• Help them enroll with a Job Club.
• Invite members of the church with experience of interviewing or who run their own business to carry out mock interviews with the residents.

Financial Implications ‍

Claiming Housing Benefit under the regulations for Exempt Accommodation

Capability for work is not the only test that Housing Benefit departments should use to assess housing benefit claims under the regulations for exempt accommodation. However, it may make it harder to evidence that a resident has support needs (that merit a place in a supported housing project) if they are in work, certainly full-time work.  Once they are working, they are deemed to be capable of work, whatever their support needs, and they will be moved out of the incapacity group of Universal Credit.  

It will be harder for you to defend a decision to reduce their Housing Benefit to local housing allowance (not full exempt accommodation) rates, but it is vital you do this as they DO still need support!

Reduction in the Amount of Housing Benefit

Universal Credit is tapered according to the amount of income received in any given month.  

Universal Credit Earnings Taper Rate

A work allowance is the amount that you can earn before your Universal Credit payment is affected.

You will be eligible for a work allowance only if you either have:

responsibility for a child

limited capability for work

The work allowance is £335 - otherwise your work allowance is £0 zero.  

Once the resident earns more than their work allowance (if they are eligible, normally only if they have dependent children living with them) the resident's Universal Credit payments will be reduced at a steady rate. This is known as the Universal Credit earnings taper. The Universal Credit earnings taper rate is currently 55%. This means that for every £1 your resident earns over their work allowance their Universal Credit will be reduced by 55p.  

Even if the resident only gets £1 awarded in Universal Credit the full amount of housing benefit is still paid - including housing benefit assessed under the regulations for exempt accommodation.  

This is because a resident claiming housing benefit under the regulations for Exempt Accommodation, who is also a Universal Credit claimant, has the whole of their income (including earnings) disregarded.  

However if the residents award dips under £1 the resident could lose their housing benefit assessed under the regulations for exempt accommodation.  But you can agree with your local Housing Benefit to have in place an Earnings Taper Rate.

In this situation once you go over the threshold to receive any Universal Credit at all, Housing Benefit payments are tapered in line with the income received. This means your project will receive a reduced amount of housing benefit payments for the working resident. The amount of this reduction is proportionate to their income.  

This means that residents must ‘top-up’ their rent from their wages.  

A Discretionary Housing Payment may be available from the local authority to help them for up to 8 weeks to adjust to budgeting for their new income.  

Once you earn more than your work allowance your Universal Credit payments will be reduced at a steady rate. This is known as the Universal Credit earnings taper.

The full amount of Housing Benefit received under the regulations for exempt accommodation  is tapered down in proportion to the amount earnt through employment.

Instead of the whole of the Housing Benefit amount being disregarded the following rules are applied:

The applicable disregarded amount = £74.70 +£5 Income disregard  

An addition £17.10 is disregarded if the resident worked more than 30 hours a week

The income that remains, after deducting the disregarded amount, is reduced by 65%.

A worked example from Lifeline Harrogate:

A. Net income earned by resident per week = £1,296.24 earned last month

    x 12 months divided by 52 weeks = £299.13 per week

B. MINUS (Applicable amount = £74.70 +£5 Income disregard +£17.10 -because they worked more than    

   30 hours a week) =£96.80

So A-B = £299.13 per week – £96.80 = £202.33

Multiplied by a reduction of 65% = £202.33 x .65 =  £131.52 plus the service charge of £8.28 per week = £139.80 is the WEEKLY  top-up we ask you to pay.  

That averages out per month as £605.78 (IE £131.52 x 52/12)

Meeting the Shortfall

This reduces the amount of money you, as landlord, receive for the resident who is employed.  

Therefore, you need to make some decisions about how this shortfall is addressed.

Option 1: Resident Pays a ‘Top Up’ - see calculations above.

Option 2: Your Project Subsidises the Rent

You may have built up sufficient reserves to only charge the employed resident a rent that is the equivalent of LHA rates.  

As their housing benefit payments decrease, so your subsidy increases.

Option 3: Sponsors

You develop a network of sponsors who subsidise the employed resident’s rent.

As their housing benefit payments decrease, so your sponsor’s  subsidy increases.

This is a great opportunity for church members to get involved and a wonderful success story to celebrate with all your stakeholders.

Encouraging Work

You need to be aware when a resident gets a job you need to be much more focussed in their support. This is a step to be encouraged but we need to make sure that work actually works for the resident! If this results in them stopping paying rent they could end up getting evicted and are back in the homeless cycle, So please do have an action plan agreed with your team now.  

Tips to prepare Residents

CV Writing

It goes without saying that a solid CV is central to any successful job hunt.  Many of your residents will need support in getting one of these together. Opinions differ on what makes up a good CV; but we recommend creating a CV writing workshop for residents with someone who has HR experience and following this up by spell-checking the document.  

Confidence with Phone Calls

Many formerly homeless people find phone calls intimidating and stressful as many will have had to deal with debt collectors and benefits departments in stressful situations. Often residents can find it helpful to have someone with them while they make important calls to calm nerves. You could try practicing some regular interactions with them.

Utilising Job Centre Plus

JCPs get a bad write press and in many cases for good reason. That said, you may find it helpful to approach your local JCP and ask what you can do to support residents on their job seeking journey. They have a wealth of resources aimed at getting people back into work and teams of people dedicated towards that goal.  

Job Clubs

There are a number of growing networks of Job Clubs in the UK, the largest being CAP Job Clubs

A local Job Club often has relationships with employers near you.  

Networking

30% of people who lose their jobs find another one through their social networks, family and friends. Many of your residents will have few contactable friends or family members who are in work or who would be helpful in the job search. For tenants who are recovering from alcoholism or drug abuse, contacting old friends is often a recipe for disaster. In these cases, you as their supporter and advocate can do some networking on their behalf. Many employers are far more comfortable taking on a new untrained employee if they know that support will be provided to the employee from both their end and elsewhere. It is particularly helpful to negotiate trial periods and internships for tenants to trial a job before they are offered it. Nationally Pret a Manger and Morrisons offer these. Do you have any major employers in your church network? Is there a programme you could help broker on your residents’ behalf?

Continued Support

It is easy to assume once a resident moves into work, that they become stable and secure and no longer in need of support. It is true that getting into work is hugely empowering and our prayer should always be that tenants find full independence. That said, many residents will need continued support, especially in the initial stages of their employment to ensure not only that they maintain their roles, but that they thrive in it. Any plan for moving a formerly homeless and vulnerable person into employment should have a support plan for once they have found that employment. Much of this will be to do with managing the money they are earning as, for many residents, money management issues will have been integral to what caused their homelessness.  

CAP Money Course

Consider setting up a CAP money course. These are fantastic and will help in the process of getting your tenants into work.