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Married couple now living in separate homes
I’m not sure of the details of this old thread, but whether two people are married is irrelevant for benefit purposes if they are not in fact living together. I can’t see why it should even be reported.
This is not true of tax credits however - a married couple are required to maintain a joint tax credits claim unless they are separated in circumstances which are likely to be permanent. So if they are currently on tax credits, there will need to be a fairly bizarre manoeuvre where the single award(s) of tax credits will need to be closed down and replaced by single person’s claims for UC.
If DWP wish to argue that your clients are, in fact, living together when they say they are not then DWP needs to prove it. Your clients would do well to avoid taking any action likely to create a paper trail DWP could use to make the argument. In broad terms, if your clients are able to, if challenged, show evidence that they are maintaining separate households - separate tenancy agreements, separate utility and council tax bills etc - then you would not expect this to be problematic.
You refer to a “single household split over two homes” - this is not a concept which has been recognised in the living together caselaw and is probably a good indication that you are overthinking it.
Thanks Elliot. That was my hunch, just a slight twist on a familiar situation = overthinking it.
This is not true of tax credits however - a married couple are required to maintain a joint tax credits claim unless they are separated in circumstances which are likely to be permanent. So if they are currently on tax credits, there will need to be a fairly bizarre manoeuvre where the single award(s) of tax credits will need to be closed down and replaced by single person’s claims for UC.
Couldn’t they be considered to be ‘separated’ here though?
The Act says:
(5A)In this Part “ couple ” means—
(a)two people who are married to, or civil partners of, each other and are neither—
(i)separated under a court order, nor
(ii)separated in circumstances in which the separation is likely to be permanent, or(b)two people who are not married to, or civil partners of, each other but are living together as if they were a married couple or civil partners.
Perhaps you could give it a shot but I am not sure that the language of court orders and permanent separation is really applicable to the circumstances of a happy couple of newlyweds who choose to live apart.
TCTM09320 does not seem to think that it would be a runner:
Married couples and civil partners should make a joint claim to tax credits from the date they marry or become civil partners, even if they do not begin living in the same household.
[...]
Example - joint claim on marriage
Two people who are in a relationship but who each lives with their respective parents marry but continue to live separately with their respective parents so they can better save for a deposit on a home of their own. They should make a joint claim from the date of their marriage.
Hmm, I think I would have certainly agreed to what is written in TCTM09320. The implication there is that the separation is not likely to be permanent (“even if they do not begin living in the same household”, “but continue to live separately with their respective parents so they can better save for a deposit on a home of their own”).
But I do get your point about the probable meaning of the word “separated” in this context.