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This paper considers the funding of supported housing schemes. These are schemes that house vulnerable people with special needs in the community. The paper looks at why the future of these schemes has been threatened by a series of legal decisions interpreting the housing benefit regulations.The paper analyses the relevant regulations and looks at how they apply to supported housing schemes. It then sifts through the details of the case law and concludes by looking at the lessons that may be learned in the future.

This is the first part of a two‐part paper that considers the assessment criteria for incapacity benefit (IB) and employment and support allowance (ESA) and how these benefits apply to claimants who are unable to work because they experience episodes of lost or altered consciousness.Part one considers how the IB/ESA appraisal system works in practice and looks specifically at the legal interpretation of lost and altered consciousness. Part two, which will be published in a future issue, will give practical guidance to advisers.

This paper aims to update the recent two‐part review of UK Incapacity Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) as they affect claimants suffering from impairments of consciousness.

The paper reviews the changes in legislation and recent opinions and rulings of Upper Tribunal judges.

Altered as well as totally lost consciousness must be considered in legislation. The yardstick is significant loss of awareness or concentration. If alcohol dependence has been diagnosed as an underlying cause then only the effects rather than the mechanism need be considered.

Claimants, advocates and decision makers should use these criteria when applying for, or granting, benefit on these grounds.

This is the second instalment of a two‐part paper that aims to consider the assessment criteria for incapacity benefit (IB) and employment and support allowance (ESA) and to analyse how this benefit applies to claimants who are unable to work because they experience episodes of lost or altered consciousness.

In the first part of the paper, which featured in Social Care and Neurodisability, Vol. 2 No. 1, the authors considered the legal meaning of lost or altered consciousness and explained how the IB/ESA appraisal and appeals system operates. This second instalment gives practical guidance to advisers who are assisting their clients in applying for ESA and appealing negative decisions to the tribunal (given its ever increasing importance, this paper focuses on ESA; however, the same considerations apply to IB cases).

The paper highlights the complexities and limitations of the benefit system for those suffering with lost and altered consciousness.

Advisers need to think laterally when assisting their clients.

The paper should provide a useful reference point for advisers.

Introduction Consider a hi‐fi loudspeaker manufacturing company acquired on the brink of insolvency by an American multinational. The new owners discover with growing concern that the product range is obsolete, that manufacturing facilities are totally inadequate and that there is a complete absence of any real management substance or structure. They decide on the need to relocate urgently so as to provide continuity of supply at the very high — a market about to shrink at a rate unprecedented in its history.