Welfare Officer, St Christopher's Hospice, South London Member since 06th Jan 2005
Housing costs and waiting period Wed 22-Jul-09 01:10 PM
My client made a claim 9th January for Income Support when his contractual sick pay ended. He made a claim for Carer's Allowance at the same time for his wife who got high care in December. He and his wife were both getting ssp from October. Carer's Allowance decided that because of holiday pay and the way he was paid that he was not entitled to Carer's Allowance until the end of March. We haven't challenged this.
Income Support nilled the claim as income too high. This would be correct without housing costs. I have requested a revision on the grounds that he should have been entitled to 50% housing costs from date of claim because he was claiming as a carer and he had already served his 8 weeks in the time before he made his IS claim because he was receiving ssp. I am struggling with the 13 week rule but again my understanding is that this then should have been converted to full costs 7 weeks later.
This has managed to confuse the bdc who mention 39 week rule as not on relevant benefits whenever it come up but we have not had a decision yet.
Things got more confusing in May when she died and he had to claim ESA instead. With the interplay of benefits he would never have been entitled without housing costs. I am assuming that as housing costs should have been in payment they would continue through the change to ESA.
