I am writing to request information regarding housing benefit payments in respect of exempt accommodation.

1. Anonymised details for each individual paid housing benefit claim in respect of exempt accommodation by Wokingham Council from January 1, 2017 (or a more recent date if information this far back is unobtainable under FOI cost and time limit rules) to December 31, 2023.
This information can be provided on a weekly (e.g. Dec 18 – 24 2023) or monthly (e.g. December 2023) basis, whatever is simplest to compile. Data should include the following details of the claim:
• Unique (anonymised) claimant ID.
• Local authority.
• Exempt accommodation provider.
• Payment period the data entry refers to (weekly or monthly, etc whichever is simplest. E.g. Dec 18 – 24 2023 or December 2023).
• Total amount paid in Housing Benefit for supported exempt accommodation in the above period (direct to landlord or provider).
• Total amount paid in Housing Benefit for supported exempt accommodation in period (to claimant).
• Number of bedrooms in the claim.
See attached file. Periods covered are 01.04.2020 to 31.03.2021, 01.04.2021 to 31.03.2022, 01.04.2022 to 31.03.2023 and 01.04.2023 to 31.12.2023. Information has been given as per each yearly period. We are unable to provide the number of bedrooms in the claim within the 18 hours.

2. Type of supported exempt accommodation (if known) (e.g. Mother and baby unit; emergency homeless accommodation).
Data should include the following details of the property attached to the claim:
• Unique (anonymised) property ID.
• Approximate anonymised location (e.g. ward).
• Property type (e.g. apartment, terrace house, etc.).
• Number of bedrooms in the property in period (NB: If this could lead to potentially identifiable data, for example if there are only a small number supported exempt accommodations with exactly 10 rooms, then please exclude this information and mark with *).
• If it is not possible to provide information to the above level of detail, please instead provide the following summary information, on the sheet Summary data by provider:
We are unable to answer this question within the 18 hour limit set under Freedom of Information (Section 12 Appropriate limit).

3. Data for each exempt accommodation provider on how many claims are paid and how much money over a payment period by Wokingham Council from January 1, 2017 (or a more recent date if information this far back is unobtainable under FOI cost and time limit rules) to December 31, 2023.
This information can be provided on a weekly (e.g. Dec 18 – 24 2023) or monthly (e.g. December 2023) basis, whatever is simplest to compile. Data should include the following details:
• Local Authority.
• Exempt accommodation provider.
• Payment period (week and year or month and year, whichever is simplest).
• Number of Housing Benefit claims for supported exempt accommodation.
• Total amount paid in Housing Benefit for supported exempt accommodation in period (direct to landlord or provider).
• Total amount paid in Housing Benefit for supported exempt accommodation in period (to claimant).
See attached file. Periods covered are 01.04.2020 to 31.03.2021, 01.04.2021 to 31.03.2022, 01.04.2022 to 31.03.2023 and 01.04.2023 to 31.12.2023. Information has been given as per each yearly period.