Housing benefit on two homes while recieving treatment

Hi,

Does anyone know if HB can be paid on two homes when a person goes into rehab and claims HB on the room they have at rehab but keeps their original tenancy on for when they return?

Thank you

There is no specific provision for it, so only to the extent that it can be covered by the normal four-week overlap rules.  I think there must have been an assumption when the Regs were drafted that rehab is either in-patient treatment or residential care so it didn’t need any provision for HB on two homes.  Are you sure this is the kind of place where HB could be claimed generally?

If the two dwellings are in different LA areas there is always a chance that each Council will decide independently that the claimant occupies the dwelling in their area and pay HB without coordinating their decisions.  But unless you get lucky that way, I cannot see how it’s possible.

Does the claimant have anyone else living with them in the non-rehab dwelling?  If so they could be treated as if they are liable for that dwelling and make their own HB claim.  But even that would only work if the Council can be persuaded that rehab has beome the normal home for the foreseeable future and the claimant has moved out of the old place.  It’s more likely HB would be refused for rehab on the basis that the claimant just doesn’t live there, they have a normal home somewhere else.

edited to remove original post

If the rehab included medical treatment or medically approved convalescence would they not be able to claim for 52 weeks under temporary absence rules?

Yes but only on the home they’re absent from. This claimant is looking for HB on the rehab establishment as well, which isn’t easy to achieve