Bedroom tax

Hi
If children are taken into care will the parents then be liable for bedroom tax for the vacant bedroom

Hi Anne

We raised this question with the DWP recently. They say that Regulation 21 of the HB regs will determine whether a child remains part of the household and is thus counted in the size criteria calculation.

In practice it looks like this means that a child who is looked after and accommodated (or in Scotland “in the care of”) a LA under relevant enactment, will not be counted as part of the household when deciding the number of bedrooms that family needs.

An exception can be made where a looked after child spends part of the week at home. Reg 21(5) allows a LA to treat a child who only spends part of the week at home as if they are part of the household for the whole week so long as they consider “that it is reasonable to do so taking into account the nature and frequency of that child’s or young person’s visits”. 

If a child is away from home but does not have looked after status then they should still be included in the size criteria calculation unless they are likely to be absent for more than 52 weeks.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for that.  We couldn’t find anything