Commentary on Sections Sharing and use of social security information Section 42: Information relating to certain benefits
224.Since April 2003, support services, which assist vulnerable persons to live independently, have been provided for or on behalf of local authorities under the Supporting People programme. Those in receipt of certain income-related benefits automatically qualify under the Supporting People means-test to receive assistance with charges for these services. The Act will enable the Department for Work and Pensions and local authorities to confirm to the Supporting People team of a local authority whether a person is in receipt of one of these benefits, without that Supporting People team having first to obtain that person’s consent. It will also enable Supporting People teams to provide certain information to local authorities to assist with the administration of housing benefit, for example to help identify where it would be appropriate to make payments of housing benefit to the landlord rather than to a claimant. These information exchanges will only be permissible for limited purposes. If a person is a certain person within a Supporting People team or a Supporting People service provider, he will commit a criminal offence if he discloses, without lawful authority, information supplied to him by virtue of one of these powers.
225.Supporting People teams for local authorities in England and Wales administer grants from the Department for Communities and Local Government and the National Assembly for Wales to provide welfare services. These services provide support to assist vulnerable groups in society, including the elderly, people suffering from substance abuse and people with mental health or learning difficulties, to live in the community. Section 93 of the Local Government Act 2000 provides a power by which these grants can be paid. An equivalent to this grant-making provision exists in Scotland but is contained within Scottish legislation.
226.Section 94(1) to (3) of the Local Government Act 2000 allowed information relating to certain income-related benefits - housing benefit, income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance and state pension credit, administered by the Department for Work and Pensions or local authorities - to be supplied to Supporting People teams for purposes connected with applying a grant made under section 93 towards welfare services. Section 95 of the Local Government Act 2000 created an offence concerning disclosure, without lawful authority, of information which was supplied by virtue of section 94.
227.Section 94 of the Local Government Act 2000 enabled the supply of information by the benefit teams of the Secretary of State or the local authorities to Supporting People teams. It gave no power for information to be supplied by the Supporting People teams to the benefit teams. Subsection (1) enables a two-way supply of information between benefit teams and Supporting People teams. Specifically, the subsection enables Supporting People teams to contact benefit teams when they receive an application for support services. In common with what previously occurred, this subsection enables the benefit team to confirm whether a certain income-related benefit (including the new income-related employment and support allowance) is in payment. This information will be used by the Supporting People team to determine whether the claimant meets the means test in determining the amount of assistance with service charges for the support services. Similarly, the subsection will enable benefit teams to inform Supporting People teams when payment of a certain income-related benefit – and hence automatic entitlement to full support – ceased.
228.It is intended that grants to support these welfare services would in future be made under powers in addition to section 93 of the Local Government Act 2000. To support this shift in funding arrangements, subsection (1) of this section creates a freestanding provision that enables supply of information concerning grants paid under enactments which will be specified by order as per subsection (7).
229.Subsection (2) of this section also enables certain information held for prescribed purposes by Supporting People teams or by housing benefit teams to be supplied to the other teams for use for prescribed purposes. The prescribed purposes are limited either to a purpose relating to housing benefit or to a purpose relating to welfare services (subsection (8)). This provision will be used, for example, to enable housing benefit teams to consider information relating to the vulnerability of a claimant or the probity of a landlord when considering whether to pay housing benefit to the claimant or to the landlord. For example, in considering whether a payment of housing benefit should be made to the claimant or to the landlord it would contribute to the decision-making process in housing benefit teams for them to know whether the claimant is receiving Supporting People assistance because of a disability and, if so, whether that disability may indicate a level of vulnerability.
230.Certain information supplied to Supporting People teams could be passed to the welfare service providers when required under subsection (5). This mirrors the provision in Section 94(4) of the Local Government Act 2000.
231.The information sharing powers provided for within this section and the offence of unlawful disclosure in section 43 replace those contained in sections 94 and 95 of the Local Government Act 2000, which are omitted.