Instruments of interest
Social Security and Universal Credit (Migration of Tax Credit Claimants and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/341)
29.These amendments underpin Government plans to close down Tax Credits and move claimants to Universal Credit by the end of the 2024–25 financial year.10 They also: amend how student finance (particularly Scottish grants) is handled in the calculation of means-tested benefits; respond to a court case to ensure that advance payments of Universal Credit can only be made to persons in possession of a National Insurance number; and ensure children placed for adoption are treated as part of a Universal Credit claimant’s household.
Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) (Amendment) Order 2024 (SI 2024/371)
30.This Order extends by one year, from 1 June 2024 to 1 June 2025, temporary provisions that were initially introduced in 202211 and subsequently extended by a year in 2023,12 to make it easier for local authorities in England to find accommodation for homeless families arriving from Ukraine and Afghanistan and for other new arrivals. New arrivals are those who make a homeless application within two years of their arrival in the UK.
31.The extension means that, if there is no accommodation available locally, local authorities only need to consider family caring responsibilities as a factor before deciding to place a newly arrived household out of area. They will not have to consider other factors, such as disruption to education or work. Another temporary provision which currently allows local authorities to use Bed and Breakfast accommodation for homeless new arrivals for longer than six weeks is not being extended and will expire on 1 June 2024.
32.According to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), the further extension is necessary to ease pressures on local authorities, particularly in areas of high demand such as London, the South East and other metropolitan areas. DLUHC says that, as of 24 March 2024, 655 Ukrainian households were in temporary accommodation, and that over 25,000 people had arrived from Afghanistan since the evacuation in 2021, with more arrivals anticipated and further pressures expected due to a significant number of asylum applications.
10 Department for Work and Pensions, ‘Completing the move to Universal Credit’ (6 June 2022): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/completing-the-move-to-universal-credit/completing-the-move-to-universal-credit--2 [accessed 27 March 2024].
11 Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (Amendment) (England) Order 2022 (SI 2022/521), see: 2nd Report (Session 2021–22, HL Paper 6).
12 Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (Amendment) (England) Order 2023 (SI 2023/509), see: 41st Report (Session 2022–23, HL Paper 202).