HB Help

Chris Smith - housing benefits consultant

pagename=Maximising Housing Benefit;pagedate=17/08/02 12:16;

PROBLEMS FINANCING SUPPORTED OR SHELTERED HOUSING?

For over 30 years I have been helping voluntary organisations work by helping them to maximise rental income met by housing benefit.  I claim to be the most experienced person currently working in this field.  Now, for the first time, I am publishing a manual which enables you to work out how to maximise housing benefit in your projects. It covers supported lettings by registered housing assocations, charities, voluntary organisations and English County Social Services Departments.  It does not cover lettings by private landlords or council housing departments.

Issues covered include:

  • How to present a new project to a housing benefit office;
  • How to present a rent increase for existing project;
  • How to work out what sort of charge is achievable;
  • Problems that might come up, and how to deal with them;
  • Summaries of the key legislation and case law;
  • Getting your contractual arrangements right;
  • The implications of target rents (although note that the manual does not give a full explanation of these or tell you how to calculate them)
  • Affordability Issues:
  • The difference between rents and service charges;
  • How to break down your charges for housing benefit;
  • Differential Charges for working residents;

AN ON-LINE MANUAL OR A PRINTED MANUAL

 

You can buy a printed manual which will be updated to be current at the date of dispatch to you.
The cost of this is £65 plus £5 postage and packing.
There are reductions if you order more than one copy at a time. You can avoid the postage and packing charge by printing of the order from and sending a cheque with your order.

You can order the printed version online and I will invoice you for you for the amount due,
or print off the order form for the printed version

As an alternative, I also publishing the manual as an e-book, where you can access the manual on line.
The on line version is optimised for navigation using a browser- not just a simple PDF file, and will be constantly updated with normally no more than a 2 week backlog so you will always have a current manual to work with. You will buy a subscription to the manual for a year.
I think that this is a better deal. You can also print off the manual at any time.
You need to specify a log in name and a password. These are case sensitive and should not contain gaps. An ordinary subscription allows one person to be logged in and reading the manual at a time, although this one person can be anyone in your organisation.
You can also buy a further subscriptions at a reduced cost which allow more people to access the manual at the same time.

Click to order the e-book.

Alternatively, you can save money by sending your payment with your order, through the post to me at PO box 2660, Lewes, BN7 2RW. Just send the money for the books. Post and Packing are free if you prepay.   price guide

Please note, orders will only be accepted from non profit voluntary housing organisations, councils and other statutory organisations.


This page last updated: 25.06.2008
file installed 18.08.2010 13:38:31