Main Duty

Introduction

The Main Duty under the homelessness legislation mandates local housing authorities to secure suitable temporary accommodation. The main duty comes under section 193(2) of the homelessness legislation. The Main Duty concludes when the applicant is able to secure suitable settled housing or if the authority determines that the duty has been appropriately discharged through other one of the other means set out by the legislation. The main duty can only be ended through the circumstances listed by the legislation that allow the duty to be brought to an end.

Applicants have the right to request a review of a number of decisions related to the Main Duty including the suitability of any temporary accommodation offered to meet the duty and when a decision is made by the authority to bring the duty to an end.

When you have completed this Block, you should have a good understanding of how to perform the Main Duty and the legal duties placed on the local authority for applicants owed that duty. You will learn all aspects of the work involved in deciding if the main duty is owed or not including how to assess whether someone is not owed the duty because they are intentionally homelessness and for those owed the main duty when and how it can be brought to an end.  

The Unit should take 4-6 hours to complete, with 2-3 hours of follow-up readings.

At the end of the Block there is an Assessment to test your understanding of how to award a Duty. The assessment is made up of 40 randomly generated yes/no questions. The pass mark is 70 per cent. This means that 28 of the 40 questions must be answered correctly. Once the assessment has been passed, you will receive a certificate showing your accomplishment in your personal dashboard.

Contents

• Introduction
• Main Duty
• Intentionality
• The Intentionality assessment
• Ending the Duty

Learning Outcomes
When you have completed this unit, you should:

• Be able to explain what the Main homelessness duty is under the Housing Act 1996 (the homelessness legislation) and its significance in requiring authorities to secure suitable temporary accommodation for applicants and their household (if any) who are owed the duty.
• Be able to describe the conditions under which the Main Duty can be brought to an end including through securing suitable long-term accommodation or determining that the Duty has been appropriately discharged through other means.
• Understand the rights of individuals to request reviews and appeals of decisions related to the Main Duty and the importance of ensuring a fair and transparent process.
• Be familiar with the assessment process required to decide if a main duty is owed or not on the basis that an applicant is in priority need and did not become homeless intentionally.
• Know how to assess the tests that decide whether an applicant is or is not owed a main duty which if the relief duty ends unsuccessfully will depend whether an applicant is intentionally homeless or not and whether they have a priority need (assessing priority need has been covered in Block 4).

Conclusion
The conclusion to the learning block.

References & Further Reading
At the end of the Block, you will find all the links to the references and there is also some suggested further reading that may also interest you.

Downloads
Contains the relevant downloads, by unit, that you will need to access information to support you through the block.