For a helpful sample Tenants Subsidy Schedule Form click here.
How are payments made?
Payments of the Supporting People grant are made on a four weekly basis, in advance. You will receive a BACS Remittance from County Treasury to advise the payment amount and credit date for that particular period.
In advance of the payment entering the provider’s bank accounts, we will send those providers with chargeable contracts a detailed payment schedule for each service which will break down the payment to service user level.
Receiving your payment schedules
Tenant Subsidy Schedules can be received in two ways.
By Post – These are sent out the Monday prior to the Wednesday that you receive the payment in bank accounts.
By Encryption Email – These are sent out the Friday prior to the Wednesday that you receive the payment in bank accounts. This has many advantages that benefit both providers and the Supporting People team. Encryyption email results in providers receiving their schedules days earlier, being able to save ‘electronic’ copies, and increases efficiency by saving time, resources and costs. Please contact the finance team if you wish to discuss encryption email further.
The Overpayment Protocol
An overpayment can result from different types of error, which will affect how it is dealt with. These are:
Administrative Error
Process: Provider receives a subsidy payment for Mr X and knows that he is not in receipt of housing benefit.
The provider would be expected to check their tenant subsidy schedule for such errors. Contact the Supporting People team for clarification, but please be aware we operate a fairer charging policy for service users not in receipt of Housing Benefit. Due to data protection, we are unable to confirm to providers without the service user’s permission whether they are in receipt of a fairer charge.
Process: Provider receives no subsidy for Mr X but inadvertently posts an amount to his rent account.
Claimant
Error
Process: Mr X falsely claims Housing Benefit. Once the fraud is detected and withdrawn the provider is notified.
This would be deemed to be an overpayment for Supporting People. Payment would end immediately and the schedule amended. The Supporting People team would wish to pursue the overpayment but would contact the service user directly.
Process: Mr X ends his tenancy by giving the correct notice and the provider fails to notify the Supporting People team.
This would be deemed to be an overpayment recoverable by Supporting People in the payment made to the provider.
Process: Mr X abandons his tenancy.
Once the provider becomes aware of the abandonment they should notify Supporting People and payment will cease from the date of the abandonment.
Process: Mr X dies and the provider notifies Supporting People of the date of death and the date the tenancy ends.
Supporting People will pay until the end of the tenancy up to a maximum of two weeks from the first Monday following from the date of death.
External Error
Process: Housing Benefit makes an error in assessing Mr X’s financial circumstances.
This would only affect Supporting People if as a result of the error, Housing Benefit is withdrawn from the service user. Supporting People would then determine whether an overpayment has occurred and if necessary, the next four weekly payment is amended to reflect the correct situation.
Overpayments on Block Gross Contracts
The provider would be expected to check their payments from Supporting People with what they know they should expect to receive. In the result of an overpayment, Supporting People will make the necessary claw-backs to reflect the correct amount payable.
Overpayments and Back Dates
Once a tenancy change is submitted to Supporting People instructing the start or end of a tenancy, it is at the Supporting People Team’s discretion as to the exact date any backdate or claw-back is made. Usually, this would be the Monday prior to a date specified for backdates and the Monday following a date specified for claw-backs.
For a helpful sample Tenants Subsidy Schedule Form click here. |
