Martin Marks has got the wrong end of the stick about Supporting People (Letters, 4 June, page 23). The reason we have the system is that the ODPM, or DETR as it was, was concerned that housing money, via housing benefit, was paying for care.

It may seem a mite picky, given that those who got the care and support were vulnerable people.

But at higher levels it does matter: the housing benefit bill was pushing £10bn and something had to be done.

Why should the ODPM use the money it has levered out of the Treasury to pay for things that the Department of Health or the Home Office should be paying for? An inter-departmental review concluded that everyone should put the money in the Supporting People pot.

The new system would be simpler and save us time and money. No need for providers to chase funding or worry about where the next grant was coming from. We'd have simple funding streams and we could concentrate on doing our job of supporting people.

But the bill came in higher than expected, so even though we'd been told the pot would remain the same, it was cut. Then someone suggested that costs had been shunted and support was paying for care. Had social services and health hijacked the pot?

We really must sort out what Supporting People is paying for – care or support.

Just out of interest, what is the annual housing benefit cost now?

Source

Housing Today

Postscript

Gill Brown, chief executive, Potteries Housing Association, Stoke-on-Trent