Housing benefit for notice period moving from supported accommodation with HB to UC housing costs

Hello, we are training lots of supported accommodation providers at the moment.  They have been used to using the HB regs allowing benefit for two homes for up to 4 weeks to cover notice periods when they move residents on with short notice and need to secure the new tenancy.  They are under the impression that a move to a UC claim for housing costs will end that provision and everything we are reading seems to confirm that.  HB will end on the date the resident moves or the end of that benefit week and UC housing costs will be paid for the new property back to the start of the assessment period in which the move happened.

My question is why can’t they get the HB paid for the notice period even though the UC housing costs claim has gone in to payment?  Or have the HB regs been altered to preven this?

The financial implications for housing providers are significant if there is no way they can get the benefit back for the notice periods.

The notice period should be covered under exactly the same rules as if the claimant were not on UC.  The claimant continues to satisfy the threshold HB requirement to be occupying the dwelling as their home: Reg 7(6)(d) says they are treated as occupying both dwellings - it doesn’t say anything about getting HB for them both.

Reg 5 of the UC(TP) Regs says you cannot be entitled to HB and UC at the same time, but makes an exception for “housing benefit in respect of specified accommodation” - well that’s what this is and there is no reason it cannot continue until Reg 7(6) no longer applies to the claimant.

Thanks, yes that confirms what I thought.  There isn’t any way that UC can treat the HB as income for the assessment period is there?

No - that only applies in a case where the Council has determined that said HB was an overpayment.  See Reg 10 of the UC (TP) Regs.  In any other circumstances, HB is not prescribed as income for UC purposes.

Hello, apologies if this was already implied in the question, but can I double check whether payment of the unavoidable overlap may be possible for a claimant who is on UC and in supported housing so getting Housing Benefit, and who then moves to different accommodation and so would get UC for everything? Or is it just possible for people in supported housing on legacy benefits who then move?

Covers current UC claimants as well.  I interpreted the OP as being specifically about a claimant already on UC and my answer was directed to such cases.

Where a current UC claimant moves out of specified accommodation, there are two decisions to be made by two decision makers in respect of two benefits:

- UC requires a superseding decision to include a housing element in the maximum amount.  It has effect under the UC D&A Regs from the start of the month

- HB requires a superseding decision after the claimant ceases to occupy specified accommodation as his/her home.  Where there was an unavoidable notice period, the decision has effect on the day the notice period ends under HB Reg 79 and Reg 8 of the HB D&A Regs

And Reg 5 of the UC(TP) Regs permits HB and UC to be paid at the same time where the HB is for specified accommodation so there is nothing to say that these two decisions must take effect on the same day.

Thank you very much, this is exceptionally helpful.

Post on another forum about unavoidable overlapping liability when a claimant moves from specified accommodation (though forum members seeking further clarification):

We have had a response from the DWP re unavoidable overlapping rental liability - see below

“Further to our telephone conversation today, I write to confirm that a UC claimant living in Specified Accommodation cannot be awarded HB because of unavoidable overlapping liability after they have moved out of this accommodation.

The Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014 make it clear that a Universal Credit claimant may only receive Housing Benefit while they live in Specified or Temporary Accommodation.

Therefore, once the claimant has moved from Specified or Temporary Accommodation, they Housing Benefit claim must immediately cease.

I can confirm that no provision exists within Universal Credit for housing costs to be paid on two homes in cases of unavoidable overlapping liability.”

You cannot pay four weeks overlapping HB.

The last people you should take any notice of about complex UC legal technicalities are DWP. Sad but true.

For the avoidance of doubt, Regs 5, 6, 7, and 8 all allow HB to be claimed and paid alongside UC where the HB is “In respect of” specified accommodation.  HB for an unavoidable notice period is still “In respect of” the accommodation that the claimant is treated as occupying under HB Reg 7.

Ignore DWP. I mean, really, if someone is going to assert that regulations “make it clear” that something is or isn’t the case, you would think they would take the precaution of reading the regs first. They obviously haven’t.

I have gone back to DWP with this as well as its a really poor response from DWP. If they don’t want councils to pay under the unavoidable liability rules in these situations they will have to give better advice than this…

An alternative argument is that schedule 3 of the UC regs 2013 gives the circumstances in which a uc claimant can be treated as occupying a dwelling as their home, and the unavoidable liability provisions aren’t in there. Therefore hb reg 7 (6) (d) can’t apply. Do you think that this is correct, or do the UC regs not apply to a uc claimant who also receives HB?

Way I look at it, HB Regs are for HB awards and the UC Regs are for UC awards. UC will only pay for the dwelling actually occupied in real life in unavoidable overlap cases: the question of treating the claimant as occupying the former home does not arise in the UC decision.. But the HB Regs treat them as if they occupy the old home.There is not even a subatomic particle of doubt in my mind about this.