Bedroom Tax and Military Personnel

On checking Regs below - can anyone confirm (or offer opinion) if “away on operations” includes being based at barracks -  in the UK for example ?

2.  (1)  The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006(4) are amended as follows.
(2) In regulation 2(1)(5) (interpretation)—
(a)after the definition of “maximum rent (LHA)” insert—.
““member of the armed forces away on operations” means a member of the regular forces or the reserve forces (within the meaning of section 374 of the Armed Forces Act 2006(6)) who is absent, while on operations, from the dwelling usually occupied as their home;”;

From the HB/CTB A10 circular:
Parents of Armed Forces Personnel

27. Adult children who are in the armed forces but who continue to live with parents, will be treated as continuing to live at home (for the purposes of applying the size criteria), when deployed on operations. In addition, the non-dependant deduction should be removed and only reinstated when they return home.

28. Member of the Armed Services means a member of the Naval Service, British Army or Royal Air Force of the Crown or members of the Reserve Forces.

29. An adult child means sons, daughters, step-sons or step-daughters of the claimant or partner.

30. For claimants in the private rented sector, this means that the applicable LHA rate or LRR will remain the same. This change comes into effect form 1 April 2013.

31. For claimants in the social rented sector, a reduction for under-occupation will not be made in respect of the bedroom of the relevant non dependants but may apply if the claimant has other spare rooms.

32. The adult son or daughter must have been a non-dependant before deployment on operations (although a deduction may not have been applied, for example where the claimant is blind) and there must be an intention to return to live with their parents.

33. On ‘operations’ does not necessarily mean away from the United Kingdom, just away from the home they normally occupy. It will also cover pre-deployment training and post operation leave (which is described as “normalisation”). For example, Royal Air Force personnel with immediate response duties who are based away from home for four months or where members of the armed forces were deployed to assist with the Olympics.

34. The LA should be satisfied that the adult son or daughter has been deployed on operations. If the adult son or daughter is already away on deployment when a new claim for HB is made, the claimant will be able to obtain a letter from the son or daughter’s chain of command in the armed forces, confirming the deployment.

This suggests to me that a routine stay in barracks (for which rent is deducted from wages) would not normally be ‘on operations’ unless they are pre- or post-deployment.

I was told by someone whose daughter is in the army that the status of “posted” is a useful indicator of whether someone is on operations.  This is by way of contrast with “stationed” which is where they are normally based for regular training and so on.

It is possible to become “posted” without actually going anywhere - if pre-theatre preparation is carried out on the barracks where you are stationed you might be posted before you travel anywhere.  I was gven the specific example of someone who is stationed in Cyprus and gets posted while still in Cyprus for several weeks before travelling to wherever the operations are taking place.

Apparently soldiers who are posted have a supplement included in their earnings so they can be identified from that.

She also told me about the habits of younger members of the armed forces while they are stationed.  The size criteria and non-dep deduction concessions only apply where the person was a non-dep immediately before they went on operations.  I suggested that this will be of little assistance to most parents because the Council will already have decided that the son/daughter who is serving has moved out and lives on the barracks now.  I was told this is not usually the case at all - younger soldiers who are stationed in the UK tend to go home to their parents almost every weekend and if you ask them where they live they will say without hesitation that they live with their parents and work on the barracks during the week.  So there are probably a lot of HB claimants for whom this concession will be useful.

Thanks guys I appreciate your response and comments