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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory revisited - LHA for multiple tenants
| Poll: How many LHA bedroom-rates is each set of clients entitled to? Total Votes: 8 |
|
|---|---|
| 2 bedroom rate, each | 0  |
| 3 bedroom rate, each | 0 |
| 4 bedroom rate, each | 2 |
| 2 for Buckets, 2 for Veruca, 1 for Grandpa Joe | 6 |
| Other | 0 |
So I’m a bit stuck on a current case and it reminds me of the scene in the 70s film version (and best version) of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:
Mr and Mrs Bucket are a couple. Mr B works; Mrs B is a carer for her disabled, adult daughter Veruca. The Buckets also have a child, Charlie, of school age. Will be moving on to UC
Veruca is a lone parent, of working-age, and has a baby daughter Violet. Is on UC
Grandpa Joe is Mrs. Bucket’s dad. He is working-age. He is ill and not working at present. Is on UC
They all live together in a 2-bed house (for various reasons not relevant, there is no housing cost at present) They want to move, and a friendly landlord Mr Wonka has a large enough house that he can offer 3 golden tickets to them in the form of 3 tenancies: one for the Buckets, a tenancy for Veruca and a tenancy to Grandpa Joe. All in the same house.
I reckon each of 3 sets of tenants should get the 4 bedroom LHA awarded in their UC claims. I’m basing this on my understanding of CPAG p361, and the example of Kwame.
I’m using a poll for the very first time, no idea if that will help, but comments and explanations very welcome.
Yours, Arthur Slugworth, disgruntled Welfare Rights Officer.
UC has a concept of an “extended benefit unit”, which only includes the UC claimant(s), the children they are responsible for, and non-dependants. Non-dependants do not include people who are liable to pay rent for their occupation of the accommodation.
Bedrooms are then allocated based on members of the extended benefit unit only.
So, the answer is 2-2-1.
See sched. 4, paras. 9-10 of the UC Regs.
3 golden tickets to them in the form of 3 tenancies: one for the Buckets, a tenancy for Veruca and a tenancy to Grandpa Joe. All in the same house.
I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. You can’t have three parallel tenancies of the same dwelling. It would have to be either (a) each of the individual families has their own tenancy over some part of the factory - in which case they are each dealt with independently or (b) all three sets of people have a joint tenancy over the whole of the factory and there needs to be some sort of complicated apportionment of their notional liability.
Thanks Elliot.
What is being described to me is each set is getting a tenancy agreement with an equal share of the rent to pay. For example each has a liability of £400.
I’m not a housing specialist but clearly clients will need to seek advice on this. Thanks again.
misread Q
Thanks everyone for responses.
I’m going to get back to client to sort out the housing issue first and then see if I can advise from there. A lot more to it than I have appreciated.
Cheers, Paul