The Housing Benefit (Habitual Residence) Amendment Regulations 2014

from 1 April 2014, the Housing Benefit (Habitual Residence) Amendment Regulations 2014 (SI.No.539/2014) amend the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 so that only EEA nationals who are receiving income-based JSA because they have a right to reside other than as a jobseeker or as a family member of a jobseeker (for example, where they retain worker status) will continue to have a right to reside for housing benefit purposes.
In addition, the regulations provide that EEA jobseekers who are in receipt of both income-based JSA and housing benefit on 31 March 2014 will be unaffected by the change until their JSA claim ceases, or they make a new claim for housing benefit, whichever occurs first.

Most claimants of JSAIB will have a right to reisde otherwise they would not have been eligible for benefit in the first place and therefore they should also continue to have a R2R for HB purposes. My question is then who are the people that is going to be affected?  Can someone please explain, sorry for being a pain.

The word “jobseeker” for these purposes is a word of art and means someone who has never worked here.  They’re the people mainly affected.

Thanks nevip, does it mean the newly arrived EEA nationals who made a claim for the first time after satisfying three months residency condition?

We are actually expecting quite a few of our EU clients to be affected and are concerned. As a homeless charity we work with clients who have often had quite chaotic lives and with a patchy work history, we also work with clients from another charity who have come out of prison.

In order to be considered a worker and then to retain worker status if temporarity unemployed, you need to demonstrate that your work prior to becoming unemployed took you over the new minimum income threshold of £153 per week or if under the threshold was genuine and effective.  Anyone who does not fit this criteria (nor can gain this status through a family member ) will be considered a Job Seeker and will not be entitled to HB.

Also since January thi syear you can only retain worker status for a maximum of 6 months while temporarily unemployed if you have worked for less than a year before claiming, therefore many will lose their HB after 6 months as they will then be considered a jobseeker even if their JSA continues.

And to make matters worse it would appear that many will not retain their JSA and therefore their HB after 6 months anyway unless they provide ‘compelling evidence’ that they have a genuine chance of work.

Nicely explained CHC thank you so much, this means more work, already overloaded :)

(CHC seems to have posted while I was typing so sorry for any overlap ...)

I think it need to be noted that there is a difference between being a jobseeker for the purposes of right to reside and getting ibJSA.

The first is defined in reg 6 Immigration (EEA) Regs 2006:

(4) For the purpose of paragraph (1)(a), a “jobseeker” is a person who satisfies conditions A and B.
(5) Condition A is that the person—

(a)

entered the United Kingdom in order to seek employment; or
.

(b)

is present in the United Kingdom seeking employment, immediately after enjoying a right to reside pursuant to paragraph (1)(b) to (e) (disregarding any period during which worker status was retained pursuant to paragraph (2)(b) or (ba)).
.
(6) Condition B is that the person can provide evidence that he is seeking employment and has a genuine chance of being engaged.

Nothing about getting JSA or claiming JSA. So you can have a right to reside as a jobseeker but the way the JSA Regs have been amended means in addition you now have to have been “living in” the CTA for 3 months as well to past the HRT ” in fact” (although it is arguable that aggregation under the EU SS Co-ordination rules might help ...). But the amended HB Regs will now mean even if you can get ibJSA, this no longer exempts you from the HRT for HB if your right to reside falls with reg 10(3A) - ie if it is as a jobseeker, a family member of one, certain derived rights and on the basis solely of initial 3 months residence - and in fact if your right to reside does fall within reg 10(3A) you can’t pass the HRT for HB anyway so you are excluded. There is of course the transitional protection you mention.

What this means is that you can still get CB or CTC if you can prove you’re seeking work and have a chance of being engaged, even if excluded from JSA or HB. But also remember that the definitions of those who retain worker status and the length of time that one can have retained worker/jobseeker status have been changed in the EEA Regs, which together with the new DWP guidance on when someone is a worker for EU law purposes, could see more people who have worked in the UK not being found to retain worker status unless they MR/appeal and so having to claim JSA solely on the basis of being a jobseeker and so being excluded from HB.

So the answer is that it is not just new arrived EEA nationals who are going to be caught out by this, but also those who have been working and are either not have been considered to have worked enough or who aren’t considered to have provided “compelling evidence” of their continuing job seeking and chances of getting work after 6 months.

Thank you so much

Why is this thread under Universal Credit?

good spot aidan ... now moved ...