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Transposition of SI 2007 No 2870 to UC
I am trying to find out whether boat licence fees are included in the housing element of UC in the same way that they are currently included in HB. SI 2007 No 2870 (The Housing Benefit (Local Housing Allowance, Miscellaneous and Consequential) Amendment Regulations) provides for this in Reg 12(1)(d): “Rent” includes “payments in respect of, or in consequence of, use and occupation of the dwelling; “. This is different from 12(1)(b) because the boat licence isn’t a licence to occupy the dwelling, it’s a statutory requirement without which a boat can be removed. I can’t find any reference to this in the UC regs 2013 and 2014. Does anyone know how this is being transposed to UC and/or how boat licence fees will be treated under the UC housing costs element, or is there no parallel provision? If there is no parallel provision, will boat dwellers need to claim JSA for the forseeable future? If anyone can help it would be appreciated.
Does this thread help Panda? http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/7782/
I can’t say whether it does or not but it certainly made me laugh
SI 2007/2870 was a consequential amendment to various instruments containing references to the HB Regs. The relevant HB Regs were renumbered a bit from April 2008 when LHA came in so those references had to be updated. It didn’t change anything of substance for houseboats as far as I can see. SI 2013/630 has done the same job for Universal Credit I think.
Cruising licences have been covered by HB since Commissioner’s decision CH/844/2002 in which two alternative solutions were offered:
- the term “mooring charges” was wide enough to include the licence, or
- the licence was a payment in consequence of use or occupation (the Commissioner preferred this option)
A lot of people consider the decision was incorrect on the use and occupation point: this is a term of art and it refers to payments made by certain irregular occupiers (see the 1999 case R v Bristol City Council ex p Jacobs). We were discussing a few days ago on here how UC does not specifically cater for use and occupation payments.
But the UC Regs still use the same form of words “mooring charges” and so CH/844/2002 should still cover it I would have thought.
Just found this whch looks like it covers fees and charges
The Universal Credit Regulations 2013
Rent payments
2. “Rent payments” are such of the following as are not excluded by paragraph 3—
(a)payments of rent; .
(b)payments for a licence or other permission to occupy accommodation; .
(c)mooring charges payable for a houseboat; .
(d)in relation to accommodation which is a caravan or mobile home, payments in respect of the site on which the accommodation stands; .
(e)contributions by residents towards maintaining almshouses (and essential services in them) provided by a housing association which is— .
(i)a registered charity, or .
(ii)an exempt charity within Schedule 3 to the Charities Act 2011.
Just found this whch looks like it covers fees and charges
The Universal Credit Regulations 2013
Rent payments2. “Rent payments” are such of the following as are not excluded by paragraph 3—
(a)payments of rent; .
(b)payments for a licence or other permission to occupy accommodation; .
(c)mooring charges payable for a houseboat; .
(d)in relation to accommodation which is a caravan or mobile home, payments in respect of the site on which the accommodation stands; .
(e)contributions by residents towards maintaining almshouses (and essential services in them) provided by a housing association which is— .
(i)a registered charity, or .
(ii)an exempt charity within Schedule 3 to the Charities Act 2011.
Schedule 1 para 2 to the UC regs.
Also boat dwellers may well be compelled to claim JSA as those without a home mooring are technically homeless.
I wonder if the UC folk will realise that boat people without a home mooring are homeless !!!
I wonder if the UC folk will realise that boat people without a home mooring are homeless !!!
Don’t worry… they will get told!
Thank you Dan, HB Anorak, Billy and SocSec. Your comments are all very helpful - and confirm what a mess UC is, no surprise there. It sounds like at the moment, until the full roll-out of UC the best course of action for a boat dweller without a mooring is to claim JSA on the basis that they have no address, and claim HB for “payments in consequence of use and occupation of the dwelling”/ “mooring charges for a houseboat”. The situation for boat dwellers who do have permanent moorings is less clear, because they may also not have a _residential_ address, unless their mooring has planning permission for residential use.
It gets even less clear when you look at the UC regs, because after the full roll-out of UC it may require quoting the SSCSA decision that “mooring charges” includes the boat licence fee even when there is no mooring fee involved. Watch this space I suppose. I am sure there will be a fight with DWP….
Do keep us informed, I do like these boat people cases, I had one in my last job that took a year to convince the council to pay HB, after many pleasant visits down to the river bank to measure the boats, [ the family had 3 boats ,all occupied by family members]. In the end we got all we asked for but my boss was begining to wonder if all my trips out were legit ;)