SGO allowance counted in social housing household income calculations

[CY23]

Hi everyone,
We finalised our SGO in September 2023. On 31 August 2023 we received a section 22 notice to quit our rented property. Our child was on a child in need plan since 2016 and we knew the LA were planning to end this once we finalised the SGO. We asked them for housing support and asked them to keep child on a Child in need plan as we were facing homelessness. Our landlord wanted to sell up and private rents are extremely high. We applied for social housing and made a homeless application.

The LA took our child off his CIN plan when we finalised the SGO and said all they could do was write a letter which our social worker did. I thought there could be support under section 17?

We are expecting a possession notice any time and the council have said that our income is too high for them to help with social housing. We are a household completely on income based ESA, pip and DLA.

We were given the full SGO allowance with no deductions as our child has special needs. The paperwork says ‘a bespoke package of support , above the standard, has been given to recognise and support Child’s ongoing complex special needs’

This, unfortunately is what has bumped our income up monthly. We also have to pay contact travel and accommodation costs out of this to contact 194 miles away 4-5 times yearly. We pay for 1:1 activities which are of a higher cost. We also have significant credit card debts as we did not receive any financial help for the past five and a half years so the full SGO allowance was given on suggestion of the judge in court to reflect that. We never had any credit card debt previously, we had a £200 credit limit card just to buy things online. Now we pay £800-900 credit card debt per month. If we have to pay a high private rent we will never be able to afford to pay the credit card debt and we are in our late fifties and it will be hanging over us into our pension age.

We did have some savings before our child came to us but we exhausted all that paying for his needs and ironically, we were saving for a deposit in a house.

At one point on the past five years we only had child benefit income of £21.80 per week income for our child.

Can we ask the council to disregard the SGO payment ? As it is only this payment that increases our monthly income. We are on income based ESA.

The council’s policy says their threshold is £45,000 per year and we are well below that by £10,000 but they are still insisting that we have too much income for social housing and they will refer us for private rented.

Our child has effects of his traumatic childhood and needs a stable home not keep moving as he has already had an unsettled young life.

Is there anything we can do as it’s getting scary now as we have no where to go and I don’t know how I am going to care for our child if we are homeless. I also worry that it could trigger his challenging behaviour and self harming again as the move from primary to secondary school triggered his self harming and we had to seek emergency CAMHs appointment and now he attends a SEN Specialist school. Thank you if you can advise.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear CY23

Thank you for your further post updating on your current situation in relating to your housing needs. I am sorry that you have been put in such a worrying position.

Unfortunately, I am not able to advise you on housing allocation for your local authority and suggest that you request a copy of their policy as you say you fall below their financial threshold. Finances are not the only matters to be considered by housing and since the child in your care has special needs this may well be an important factor.

Here is a section from the government guidelines relating to housing allocation which I hope will be useful to you. You can also ask for a copy of the local authority’s policy on housing allocations

If you are served with an order for possession this, might you in the position of being homeless and in priority need for housing. I think it is important for you to obtain legal advice from a housing lawyer or from Shelter on 0808 800 4444 as I am not able to offer housing advice.

Regarding your child being removed from child in need I am not sure this is correct as the local authority has specific duties to children with disability. I suggest you ask for a child in need assessment under section 17 Children Act 1989. Children’s services can offer accommodation support under this section 17. Please see information HERE relating to child in need.

You have stated that you are in receipt of enhanced special guardianship allowance due to your child’s special needs. Children’s services can also offer practical support and you can contact the Special Guardians support services for help. Here is an advice sheet relating to support that children’s services can offer.

I see from previous posts that you were given extensive ad-vice prior to the special guardianship order being made and you may find it helpful to revisit that advice and the links.

Regarding your specific question whether the special guardianship allowance can be disregarded, this is something you would have to ask housing, but I think it unlikely. However, if there are specific elements paid for your child’s needs, they may consider that.

I hope you find this helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie

[CY23]

Thank you for all the information and links Susie. I appreciate it.