Disregard of childcare costs as income for HB

Currently dealing with a client on a zero hours contract

She usually works 20 hours a week, gets CTC and WTC with childcare costs of 35 quid a week

one week she only got 14 hours of work (the only time she dropped below 16 hours) and tax credits are fine with this as her usual working pattern is 16 hours or over

Housing benefit have refused to disregard this 35 quid for that week, saying she must work 16 hours before HB can disregard it. Recovery has put her in arrears and she has lost “excellent tenancy status” with rsl that can jepoardise her tenancy in the future

Is this correct? They made a mess of her in work disregards, plus a few other things which im sorting, but i was wondering if the LA are correct here. I have never seen childcare costs added as inocme before in an HB calculation, always disregarded

Thanks

To get the child care disregard the claimant (plus partner if they have one) generally needs to be in “remunerative work”.  Reg 6 defines this as work for not less than 16 hours a week or, where hours fluctuate, for not less than 16 hours a week on average.  The Council has taken the view that her hours don’t fluctuate, therefore the short week was a one-off to be viewed in isolation, which is a harsh approach but not necessarily incorrect.  You say she usually works 20 hours ... is it exactly 20, regular as clockwork?  Or is it a bit different from week to week but normally around 20-ish?  If there is any kind of variation within a narrow range you could argue that her hours fluctuate and so the 14-hour week should be included in the long term average.

Thanks Mr A

Ill check her hours and see what i can do.