Sorting Housing benefit was unnecessarily difficult; there was a real nervousness about parents being directors of the CIC collecting the rent. It caused a lot of confusion and meant we had to talk to people several times – its wasn’t straight forward.

We are involved with a housing association who work with the same values as us, they’ve managed everything around housing benefit for us which has made that much easier. The housing benefit covers more of the costs than we were expecting. It contributes to the costs of living but there are elements included in the housing benefit because it’s a place of work covering the communal areas. Costs around lift servicing, hoist servicing, boiler, fire safety for example are included. Working with a housing association has added a formal layer around management that means our housing and care operate separately.