Forum Home → Discussion → Housing costs → Thread
benefit paid in Italy
I think your point 4 is the clincher: it isn’t the claimant’s or partner’s income. The income of a child or YP is completely disregarded in HB.
There is the notional income rule [Reg 42(6)(c)] that income handled by the claimant on behalf of a third party is treated as the income of the claimant to the extent that it is kept by the claimant for his/her own use, but it doesn’t apply where the third party on whose behalf the claimant handles the money is a member of the claimant’s family. So I cannot see a way that it can be treated as income for HB purposes.
That hopefully avoids any need to delve into the coordination rules. The way I read Article 5 of Regulation 883/2004, analogous benefits paid by other member states must have the same “legal effect” as the equivalent host state benefit when the “competent state” decides entitlement to other benefits within the scope of the coordination rules. HB isn’t in scope so I am not sure that argument would work - in the case of HB there is no “competent state”. But hopefully the argument needn’t progress that far as the income should not be taken into account at all.
great stuff thank you - I will give the income of a child argument a go. Thanks again for your clarification