Assessment of eligibility : Contents
Changing a client's initial priority rating
Before confirming the client's priority rating you need to consider if the Social Allocation System (SAS) generated rating reflects the client's entire circumstances.
Initial priority rating
The client's priority rating is calculated in SAS. There is discretion to change this priority rating when the overall housing need of the client suggests a different priority rating.
Factors to consider before confirming a client's priority rating
Factors to consider may include (but are not limited to):
- Has the client limited the area they want to live, to high cost areas?
- Has the client reasonably looked for alternative accommodation?
- Has the client limited their income by choice, for example due to work obligations sanctions, or failure to assist child support reduction or not accessing all assistance available to them?
- Has the initial priority rating reflected the client's need to move correctly when considering their whole situation?
- Has the client declined a social housing property (or failed to accept a property offer by not responding to the offer) in the last 13 weeks? When looking at their overall situation and considering their housing need, does it suggest that the clients housing need is not as urgent as the initial property rating they have been assigned under the SAS criteria?
- Are there any other relevant factors that have impacted on a change required to the client's initial priority rating?
Note in the system the changing of a client's initial priority rating up or down is referred to as an over-ride of the priority rating and is undertaken using the over-ride function.
