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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Housing costs  →  Thread

Clients on partial HB awaiting transfer to UC full service

stevemac
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Horsham CAB, West Sussex

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Total Posts: 117

Joined: 24 April 2012

Hi All

We are currently a live UC service area - go digital March 2018
Our local HA are trying to get their tenants prepared for this by requesting local HB provider to stop paying HB to them in respect of single and couples (with no children) tenants who have a partial award only (so who are already paying a rent top up to the HA) -  their idea is to get people used to paying the HA all of the rent as they will have to under UC full service at some point after March 2018 -  however starting with these partial payers

The HA concerned took advice from another HA who had already received agreement from their local HB Office to pay all HB in partial award cases to the above groups of their tenants

Presumably ,  any HB Office does not have to agree to the HA request (unlike mandatory grounds whereby they have to pay HB direct to the HA) but only have discretion to agree to it

If a tenant objected to receiving all of the HB would the HB Office have to adhere to this?

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

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Joined: 12 March 2013

For an HA tenant, HB Reg 96 says the Council may pay HB to the landlord if, inter alia, the claimant has requested or consented to it.  There is a right of appeal against whatever decision the Council makes.  It is not entirely clear whether the Tribunal, stepping into the Council’s shoes, can exercise discretion as if it were the Council or whether the purely discretionary part of the decision is beyond the Tribunal’s powers.  Personally I think it is in scope: the suggestion that discretion is out of scope is, I think, based on a misunderstanding of the case law concerned with overpayment recovery.  But others disagree and say that if you don’t like the way a Council has exercised its discretion as part of an HB decision you have no recourse other than JR on Wednesbury principles.  Having said that, it seems to me that one perfectly good reason for not agreeing to the claimant’s request would be if the landlord is unwilling to accept the payments.