Expert Link – Disabled people in the housing sector
Written evidence submitted by Expert Link [DPH 026]
“There’s typically very limited options. Clients who could potentially live independently and may not need that sort of supported living for the long term.”
“[…] when we're looking at something like housing and benefit, people want labels. The system wants labels. So if you can't give those labels you are at an immediate disadvantage.[…] So that we need to make sure there are ways around for people in that position.”
“[…] even when you do manage to get diagnosis on paper, like most disabilities, if not all disabilities, affect everyone differently and even from day to day, it might affect that same person differently from day to day. So I think a barrier in itself is almost a lack of understanding, but an understanding of the sort of flexibility around the disability and the impact that might have on your housing.”
“You have to become an expert in like advocating for yourself and knowing what things to say and like becoming an expert at filling in forms and knowing those keywords that you have to include.”
“[…] she's now in like her fifties and she's only just had a diagnosis, a personality disorder diagnosis and she's getting really like you know really sort of wrap around care like there's an intense support in place now. But that doesn't mean that her housing need now is any more important than what it was”
“If they have a homeless applicant who has disability needs and say they are offered a form of accommodation under a Part 6 offer, for example, they're kind of forced to accept it on the first instance before they can appeal that. Because they have got a right to review and that process can take some time. The reason they're encouraged to accept it is because if they don't and then the appeal process doesn't go their way, they could lose their duty and lose the accommodation completely. […] felt because of the local authority saying, you know, you really need to accept this because this is the one offer that we can provide at this current moment in time, because you have a homeless duty and that is what it is. They might be felt, you know, pushed into a corner to accept something, which might not be quite right to your needs.”
“Is it a barrier in itself asking for help? So when asking for an adaptation... Is that easy? Cause I found it quite difficult. Even with sort of my support worker to help me. It was still difficult in a sense. Me building up to ask for that aid and adaptation being done and then the whole process. So it wasn't clear, it wasn't simple. It wasn't accessible, which is sort of ironic because you know you're asking for these things to be made accessible. But no one I don't think is asking for the process to be made accessible.”
“If you have a disability, but you're also fairly articulate, or you know a little bit about your rights or you know a little bit about what you need. Not just medical professionals, but housing officers in particular… they hate that. I think probably because it feels like you're telling them how to do their job. Where is actually all I'm trying to do, is say what I need. And granted not with every disability but with sort of most disabilities, actually, I am the best judge of character, 9 times out of 10, for what I need you do get treated differently with that.”
“That can’t be that bad because you're not on medication. Whereas actually, sometimes not being on medication is a symptom of it being bad.”
“My local authority, for example, does have a group of private landlords who are willing to rent their homes to people say on UC or housing benefit, with, like what […] was saying, with the agreement of like a guarantor via the local authority and if they could do things like that specific to people with disabilities and yeah, bit more co-production would be good.”
“I think a lot of it boils down to potentially lack of training. So, particularly when you're looking at sort of like, housing in, local authorities or housing associations, I don't know how many sort of get training around the Equality Act. And actually I sort of think we talk about disabilities, or we talk about the diagnosis’, quite regularly. We don't necessarily understand what that means in terms of the law and actually in terms of how that person needs to be treated for it to be lawful. So I think more training around sort of actually what people's rights are. Just as that could only filter down to the clients, and advocates and people that are working with them.”
“I think like the not enough proper accommodation comes into it links into what […] was saying about co-production and people not talking and listening to each other. Because that essentially means as the lack of appropriate accommodation is because they're not planning, because they're not able to plan, because they don't know what people need because they're not listening. To the housing associations, to all the people with lived experience.”
“If you have got a lot of demands on the little money you've got, and things like getting your heating to a certain level are really part of coping because of your health. And having the money to pay for the electricity for the equipment you have to use. Being put in a place that has low quality insulation, at worse mould and things like that. That is really putting a massive barrier for people. I mean it's a sort of weird way of saying it because by right, people shouldn't be in those situations, especially when they've got little income. But it's a doubly effective barrier when you've got issues around you know, the ability to breathe, for example, you know, you need to be on some sort of portable oxygen, and all that sort of thing You can't expect people to cope in these very low quality housing.”
“I've seen one of their approaches with my role is to try and encourage people to go into private, especially, you know, people who are vulnerable. But with, but they do so without giving you the right tools and resources to be able to manage that. We don't have any sufficient national incentives to really encourage those kinds of move ones into private sector for vulnerable clients. Obviously landlords and lettings agents won't look favourably on those, because why would they when they've got 20 other people who are just the general public working, to go into those accommodated types of accommodation, as I say they would rather pick them, over those vulnerable clients. How can the local authorities make that a more supportive process to the objectives that they actually want to achieve?”
“I supported a service who had a person with mobility needs who obviously can’t work.
And they have got their relative benefits to support that, you know, PIP and limited capability to work allowance and whatnot. And you would kind of have a, you know, you do a little assessment of their affordability to see what they might be able to budget for in terms of their move into PRS. But when you actually then go to contact lettings agents, it's still not enough to pass their referencing checks despite you know you could tell that their monthly income would be sufficient to be able to pay for the rent and pay for bills and manage that, you know, so they won't even get looked in past that sort of referencing process because they would just simply fail when they do it on these sort of online, you know, automated online check or whatever that might be. So they weren't considered beyond that. Which was a real issue. I feel it's an issue across the board.”
“I know that feeling of, actually, they're going to choose a working couple every time over a single parent, over a disabled tenant, you know. I don't know why, because I don't know why it is that, you know, benefits or whatever help you get, is less attractive than a salary. Because in my view, that's more secure, surely. But yeah, it is really, really tough.”
“It's a tough market in terms of the private rental and social housing. I feel like you have so many hoops to jump through just to even you know you feel like you're trying to sort of sell yourself to these letting agents that you know, look at me I can afford this, and you're trying to justify it all the time. And so I can only imagine what that then feels like then having to ask for, adaptations to be made to properties on top of that and it must be a really sort of stressful experience.”
“I think with sort of the finances side of things it kind of feels like you're damned if you do any damned if you don't. So sometimes if you're on certain benefits, it means you're eligible for certain things, but then you'll benefit earning threshold might mean that you're no longer eligible for that grant, because you have too many benefits? So it's again there's sort of no flexibility around that and I think particularly if you've got people with disabilities that might have had them since birth or since childhood or they're progressive.”
“Potentially you might have a whole cohort of people with disabilities living in unsuitable accommodation, because they know it's just going to end in 12 months and they're gonna have to have that fight again.
So there's no point sort of asking for help. Because by the time you get an adaptation and occupational health in and all these assessments and get the landlords to do the job, you're going to be moving out potentially.”
September 2023
5