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HB Entitlement & Care Homes

Shell Dent
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Karbon Homes

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Total Posts: 34

Joined: 10 February 2014

Hi

I am not sure if I am correct in thinking the answer or if I have made this up but needing help regarding HB and Care Homes.

A client of mine has been made permanent in a care home and has therefore put their notice in for their rented property - Do Housing Benefit cover the notice period - even though there is no intention to return or residency?

HB Anorak
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Benefits consultant/trainer - hbanorak.co.uk, East London

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Total Posts: 2895

Joined: 12 March 2013

Yes I think they should.  Being treated as still occupying for up to 13 weeks during a residential care trial period is one way of satisfying HB Reg 7; being treated as occupying for four weeks after moving out is another.  I think they can run consecutively.  Reg 7(6)(d) says:

“in the case where a person has moved into a new dwelling occupied as the home, except where paragraph (4) applies, for a period not exceeding 4 benefit weeks from the date on which he moved if he could not reasonably have avoided liability in respect of two dwellings”

“Moved” here means moving your stuff out and ceasing to regard the place as home.  Even though your client has not personally moved, as they were already in the care home, they have moved in the legal sense contemplated by Reg 7(6).