Written evidence submitted by Down's Syndrome
Association
We are concerned that the proposed changes to Housing
Benefit will adversely and disproportionately affect people with
Down's syndrome.
1. People with Down's syndrome, like others with
disabling conditions from birth, have almost no chance of ever
acquiring financial security through full-time well paid work
over the course of their lifetime. Like others with learning disabilities,
they probably have the worst chance of employment of all groups
of people with disabilities, as supporting someone with learning
disabilities in a job requires so much commitment of resources
from employers that very few are willing to attempt it. Most people
with Down's syndrome say that they want to work—the jobs
simply are not there.
Almost no one with Down's syndrome has a realistic
prospect of earning enough to live on or pay housing costs without
support from either their families, or the benefits system. Almost
no one with Down's syndrome is able to escape poverty and "benefit
dependence" through work.
To live independently of their families, people with
Down's syndrome rely on Housing Benefit to pay rent. (The exceptions
are people with Down's syndrome whose families are wealthy enough
either to subsidise their rent, or to buy a flat or house for
their child, either outright or with any mortgage payment paid
through other parts of the benefits system.)
2. Given that almost no one with Down's syndrome
is realistically able to better their financial position through
work, the proposed changes will make no difference to their incentives
to look for work or take low paid work. Most say they want to
work in any case.
3. The proposed change to set Local Housing Allowance
rates at the 30th percentile of local rents will restrict people
with Down's syndrome to only 30% of the housing market - the bottom
30%. It seems extremely unjust that someone with a disability
should be condemned to the worst housing, especially as that person
has no chance at all of ever changing their situation.
4. Moreover, there will be a knock on effect
on social landlords, who provide most of the housing to people
with Down's syndrome. Their income from rents will inevitably
be affected. There is not enough provision of suitable housing
for people with Down's syndrome now - these changes will make
that situation worse.
5. The effect of the changes to Housing Benefit
will compound the effects of withdrawal of social care to people
with Down's syndrome. There is a good chance that for many people
there will be no alternative to living at home with ageing parents,
with very little support for them or their carers.
6. Uprating the non-dependant deductions in line
with prices from April 2011 seems like the final cruelty. Because
of the difficulty of finding suitable supported accommodation
for people with Down's syndrome, they are extremely likely to
stay living at home with their parents. If their parents themselves
are on Housing Benefit, they will lose more of their own benefit
with this change. Non dependent deductions are not paid if the
person liable to pay rent is disabled—there is no exemption
if the non-dependant is the disabled person (except for a limited
period if the non-dependant is under 25 and on certain benefits).
This seems like an extra penalty for the very poorest and most
vulnerable families.
We would like to see:
- An addition to the Local Housing Allowance rate
to enable people with disabilties to continue to access 50% of
the available rented housing.
- An exemption from the non-dependant deduction
if the non-dependant is disabled.
3 September 2010
| 
