Bedroom tax amendments for disabled couples/children

Due to the SI.No.213/2017 coming into force from next month - does anyone know how this will be implemented for existing victims of the said Bedroom Tax?

should I be advising current claimants who fall under the amendments write to their LA individually to ask to be exempted on the basis of the new rules or will LA’s be pro-active enough to develop some sort of form do we think?

A lot of these cases will be known because they are already in the appeals system, or because they are getting a DHP, but there is nothing to lose from writing to the Council to flag up cases where it seems an extra room will now be allowed.

In case you run into any time limit difficulties, the event triggering entitlement to an extra room is a change in the regulations so claimants are not obliged to report any change of circumstance: existing awarding decisions should be superseded from April 2017 in any affected case irrespective of how long it takes for the relevant information to come to light.  However, there could be a problem with any further HB decisions made on or after the amendment date in ignorance of the fact that the claimant’s circumstances warrant an extra room: there is a time limit for those to be revised to the claimant’s advantage.  It could be argued that any-time revision on the official error ground is available where ignorance of the facts arose from the Council’s failure to make pertinent enquiries, but the safest approach is for claimants to make sure the Council is not ignorant of the facts by coming forward now.