Hall of residence housing costs

Quick question: if a student qualifies for UC as they receive PIP, can they get housing costs for their halls of residence? We can’t find anything that says they don’t, so just wanted to check with the experts here.

The only thing that might prevent it is the general rule that UC is only payable for the dwelling normally occupied as the home.  HB has a couple of deeming rules that make it easier for students to be treated as occupying student accommodation if they get over the hurdle of being eligible for HB as a student in the first place, but UC does not have those rules as far as I can see.  Specifically the rules in HB are:

- if you live at different places during term time and vacations, and you are liable for rent on only one of the homes you use, you are treated as occupying the one you are liable to pay rent on.  This would suit, for example, a student in halls of residence who lives with their parents outside term time.

- if members of a couple live in different places because one of them is a student, they are treated as occupying both homes for HB purposes

Those two rules are absent from UC, so you are left with the the general rule in para 1 of UC Schedule 3:
“regard is to be had to all the circumstances in determining which dwelling the claimant normally occupies as their home, including (among other things) any persons with whom the claimant occupies each dwelling.”

Excellent thank you