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Ineligible Service Charges

Mike H
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Wales and West Housing Association - Wales

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Total Posts: 8

Joined: 21 December 2010

Hi

Reading the HB regs it states that water charges are not eligible for HB. I have taken that as meaning when its due to personal use of an individual but does this also cover charges if water is being used in communal areas of a scheme (retirement in this case), e.g outside taps, communal toilet, laundry, kitchen, etc?

Thanks

FIT Advisor
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benefit advice officer, three rivers housing association, co durham

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Joined: 18 June 2010

Communal supply is eligible and we have used the same split as we apply to fuel, 80/20 if tenants are not separately billed for water. If they are, then the supply to communal areas should be fully eligible for HB.

HB Anorak
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Benefits consultant/trainer - hbanorak.co.uk, East London

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Joined: 12 March 2013

If it is a fixed water rate rather than a variable charge, strictly speaking there is supposed to be a floorspace calculation rather than a consumption estimate: the deduction from the rent for HB is a proportion of the full water rate for the rateable unit “obtained by dividing the area of the dwelling occupied by the claimant by the area of the self-contained unit of which it forms part” - HB Reg 12B(5).

In practice most authorities will abide by the landlord’s specified charge unless it seems obviously skewed: 80/20 sounds like a perfectly reasonable split.

For variable charges, the Regs are more flexible: the HB deduction should be based on a reasonable estimate of the claimant’s personal consumption so if the bill includes heavy communal use for hosing down gardens etc the split might be more generous to the claimant than a floorspace area calculation would be.