Hi everyone
The Housing Options conference took place this week and in amongst the sense of foreboding about the spending review and the government's over use of terms like Big Society and Localism there was a spirit of defiance and positive energy in making sure that underneath the jargon, good things continue to happen for people.
The right home and environment was felt to be paramount in making sure that people have sustainable and happy lives. One of the ways that some people have found to do that is through Shared Ownership. However, in recent weeks there have been some changes in benefits that affect the way that people have previously been able to buy their own homes through Shared Ownership.
Shared Ownership is when someone buys part of their property with a housing association and rents the other part from them. The good news is that some people with learning disabilities WILL still be able to buy homes. But instead of being cost neutral to them they will need to contribute. This means it probably rules out people on low rate DLA, but is still an option for people on middle or higher rate DLA.
Previously, the benefit that has paid people's mortgages Income Support Mortgage Interest (ISMI) was set at about 6%. The government have changed that to 3.63% for people getting a mortgage from October 1st 2010 (it doesn't affect people who already had a mortgage before this date). This means that if people want to get a mortgage at the rate of 6% from a lender they will need to top this money up themselves. So the challenge is, how do we make sure that people can afford to top this up in a sustainable way? One solution is that it will be offset by the money that people will have to contribute to the local authority for their support. The local authority won't be able to count it as income so people will pay less of a contribution.
We will have to see how that works out in practice for the people we support but for some people, owning their own home will be the right option for them and we need to be ready to support them with good information. The best place to look is the Housing Options Website:
http://www.housingoptions.org.uk/
It is our challenge to ensure that people are spending the money they have in the best way for them and that we celebrate and share the creative and cost effective ways of people doing that. If you support anyone who is considering moving and would like to have a chat about Shared Ownership, rental or any other housing issue, get in touch. I also have the slides from the conference and can go through them too.
Any questions/comments?
Thanks, Kathryn
