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Almshouse

ib
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Supervisor/caseworker - Malvern Hills District CAB

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Client lives in a charity almshouse and received HB (local housing allowance) but pays separately monthly for fuel. In CPAG p 97 under ‘payments that can be met by HB’ it includes ‘contributions made by a resident of a charity’s almshouse’ so I am wondering if the fuel bill can be included in the ‘contribution’ in this case and be covered in the HB.  Client has a licence to occupy the flat, not a tenancy as I understand it.  In fact the payments client is liable for, including the fuel, come to well below the LHA for the area.  Cl is on PC. I would be most grateful if someone could clarify this and direct me to the appropriate place in the legislation. Many thanks.

Paul_Treloar_CPAG
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Advice and Rights Team, Child Poverty Action Group

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WBH doesn’t contain the full description. Footnote 3 refers to reg.12(1) of HB Regs 2006, and within this, reg.12(1)(h) states the following:

any contribution payable by a person resident in an almshouse provided by a housing association which is either a charity of which particulars are entered in the register of charities established under section 3 of the Charities Act 1993(a) (register of charities) or an exempt charity within the meaning of that Act, which is a contribution towards the cost of maintaining that association’s almshouses and essential services in them

I’m not sure that fuel charges would constitute an essential service.

ib
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Supervisor/caseworker - Malvern Hills District CAB

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Paul, thank you for providing the full footnote.

ib
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Supervisor/caseworker - Malvern Hills District CAB

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My colleague has found para 10.3 and 8.6 in the Shelter Guide to Housing Benefit, which says that if a claimant’s actual rent is lower than the LHA figure, their eligible rent equals their actual rent even where the rent includes service charges which would be ineligible under other HB rules.  The footnote to this paragraph refers to HB reg 13 (D) 1 but I cannot find this paragraph!  I wonder if you, Paul, or someone else with a legal brain can unravel this for me, please.  Many thanks.

chacha
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You will find 13 (D) here : http://lawvolumes.dwp.gov.uk/docs/a8-2501.pdf and as the LA have decided this is LHA, all services, as long as they are necessary in order to occupy the property, are included it the LHA rate so I’m going to assume they should pay the fuel charge, personal or not.

 

Paul_Treloar_CPAG
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Well, you’ve caused us no little head scratching, but I think we’ve got to the bottom of it.

Under reg.13D(4) HB Regs, the relevant authority shall determine the cap rent (in accordance with the determination in paragraph (12)); and whether the cap rent exceeds the applicable local housing allowance. Para.5 allows that where the LHA rata exceeds the cap rent, the LHA payable shall be the cap rent.g

Reg.13D(12) states in this regulation - “cap rent” means the aggregate of such payments specified in regulation 12(1) (rent) which the claimant is liable to pay, or is treated as liable to pay by virtue of regulation 8 (circumstances in which a person is treated as liable to make payments in respect of a dwelling), subject to regulation 12B(3) (mixed use accommodation), (4) (more than one person liable to make payments) and (6) discretion in relation to eligible rent).

Reg.12(1) includes payments of, or byway of, rent (para.a) and payments of, or by way of, service charges payment of which is a condition on which the right to occupy the dwelling depends (para.e), as well as the almshouse provision noted under para.h above.

As this does not incorporate any of the provisions under Sch.1 (ineligible service charges) under which at para.5 fuel charges are specifically excluded, it does appear that the whole rent and service charges can be met if these are lower than the LHA rate.

HB Anorak
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That analysis is spot on - Schedule 1 is simply not engaged at all in an LHA case.

Only other thing to emphasise here is that the fuel charge satisfies the threshold C.O.T. requirement in Reg 12(1) (or C.O.L. in this case I suppose).  Put simply, if the claimant does not pay the fuel charge, what are the consequences?  If eviction is a theoretical consequence, it is covered.