About me
- I have been involved in welfare benefits since 1970; as a claimant, Department of Social Security officer, tribunal member, advice worker and housing manager.
- I was formerly Social Security policy worker for CHAR, the housing campaign for single people and national MIND.
- Since 1987 I have offered a training and consultancy service specialising in how the welfare benefit system affects access to housing. I have a particular interest in issues affecting small voluntary organisations, especially those providing sheltered or supported housing. I am one of the most experienced consultants in the field. Over a thousand housing and benefit organisations have used my services or bought books from me.
- I do a considerable amount of work around those areas of housing benefit that cause most difficulty, including supported housing, overpayments, delays and the verifying claims.
- I also write guides to the benefit system. My annual guide “Housing Benefit for Housing Managers” is widely used by housing managers. In a typical year the majority of offices of voluntary housing organisations will have at least one copy of my guide. The guide is also used by benefit payers and local authority housing managers.
- I offer regular briefing services to keep you right up to date with housing benefit
- I regularly represent at tribunals with a high success rate.
- I have trained for many of the major training organisations offering housing benefit training, but now train exclusively under my own name.
My aims
- My main aim, apart from making a living, is to improve the position of the most vulnerable members of society by helping them get access to good quality housing and support as well as to help them to increase their income. So I will not help housing organisations set up schemes which will disadvantage tenants, although I will help landlords in situations where tenants have, for example generated overpayments by not telling the council what is going on.
- I normally only work with non-profit organisations, although I do some work for private landlords who offer assured tenancies (as opposed to assured shortholds).
- I prioritese work with small and neighbourhood based organisations, tenant controlled organisations and organisations with a commitment to build only sustainable housing.
- I do work with supported housing organisations to enable them to achieve above average rents met by housing benefit. But I will only do this where this reflects actual costs, and I will not do consultancy for organisations where a voluntary organisation leases property from a company or individual closely associated with the organisation.
Buying goods and services
- I try to buy as many of my goods and services from organisations which have similar aims to mine, including non-profit organisations, those with a good track record of employing those groups who are commonly discriminated against and who have a good record on trade union recognition
- I try to balance this commitment with my environmental aims.
The environment
I try to minimise the environmental impact of my work by:
- Providing as many publications as possible in electronic rather than paper form;
- Doing as much consultancy by email and phone as possible to reduce travel
- Travelling almost exclusively by public transport (excluding flying)
- Using recycled equipment wherever possible and replacing equipment as infrequently as possible.
- Using local suppliers where physical transportation of goods is required, subject to my other policies on buying goods and services.