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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Housing costs  →  Thread

Bedroom tax and “member of the armed forces away on operations”

Ruth Knox
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Vauxhall Law Centre

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Does anyone know if there is any case law yet on this. We are looking at the case of a client who was refused a room on the basis that her son is not away on operations.  As far as I can see anyone who lives in barracks is away on operations in that they can at any point be ordered anywhere.  They can’t choose, for instance, to live in their own accommodation. Any comments?  Ruth

Gareth Morgan
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CEO, Ferret, Cardiff

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The terms are set out in The Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2013.  They say:

“... the relevant authority must include any member of the armed forces away on
operations who—
(a) is the son, daughter, step-son or step-daughter of the claimant or the claimant’s
partner;
(b) was the claimant’s non-dependant before they became a member of the armed
forces away on operations; and
(c) intends to resume occupying the dwelling as their home when they cease to be a
member of the armed forces away on operations.”.

‘member of the armed forces away on operations’ is defined as

“a member of the regular forces or the reserve forces (within the meaning of section 374 of the Armed Forces Act
2006(f)) who is absent, while on operations, from the dwelling usually occupied as their home”

In your example, “anyone who lives in barracks” would have those barracks “usually occupied as their home”.

HB Anorak
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Benefits consultant/trainer - hbanorak.co.uk, East London

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When the Regulations were first amended to make that concession I felt that it would not really help many pepole because, as Gareth says, if you normally live on the barracks anyway you don’t count as an occupier in your parents’ home anymore.

But a delegate on a course whose daughter was in the army told me that single members of the forces, especially younger ones, still very much see themselvles as living with their parents: they work on the base but come home regularly, as often as every weekend, when they are doing normal military service.

She suggested that “on operations” means the same thing as “posted”.  You are “posted” if you have been allocated to a particular operation, whether it’s combat or emergency humanitarian aid (as in the ebola crisis).  There might be a period of preparation when you remain on the base, or a different base, but not actually in the theatre of operations - she suggested that you are “on operations” during that preparation phase.  She also said this can be identified from a supplementary allowance shown on the payslip.

The downside is that there may well be quite a lot of young members of the armed forces who were removed from their parents’ HB assessment when they joined the forces.  If they make themselves known all of a sudden they might find that there is an overpayment of months’ or years’ worth of non-dep charges: a bigger problem than the bedroom tax in most cases.  The non-dep deduction is waived during operations but not the rest of the time.

Ruth Knox
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Vauxhall Law Centre

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Thanks for the contributions.  As you say, if it is so limited, then it is pretty useless. I am inclined to see how far we go on an appeal on this. Will keep you posted.  Ruth

Gareth Morgan
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CEO, Ferret, Cardiff

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It may well be that the main use of it is with TA members.