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NRPF case, capital for HB, mixed couple
decided my couple can safely claim HB, one has NRPF on visa but other is UK citizen. who gets pension credit [ G] on a single claim BUT the one with NRPF has savings of £18.000, these are not taken into account for PC but are they taken into account for HB ???
If your client can claim PC as a single person, then he’s passported to maximum HB as a single person and therefore, there is no assessment of their capital.
But if your clients are a couple, then they’ll both need to have reached state pension age. You don’t have to be married or in a civil partnership, you’re considered a couple if you live together. For couples, one partner claims and gives income and savings details for both partners.
They are a mixed-age couple. The only reason that your client can claim PC is because his partner has NRPF so he can’t claim UC as a single person, so he’s allowed to claim PC as a single person.
Exactly the same rules apply for the HB claim - he claims as a single person but the PC award passports him to maximum HB for the property they live in - there is no separate assessment of income/capital for the HB claim because of the PC award.
See A9/2019 Mixed age couples: further guidance (revised)
Special rules for certain mixed age couples
15. In certain circumstances, under UC rules the younger partner in a mixed age couple will be ineligible for UC where they are:
* under 18 (the normal minimum age for UC)
* does not satisfy the habitual residence test
* is a person subject to immigration control
* is a prisoner (including detention in hospital serving a sentence of imprisonment)
* is absent from Great Britain for more than the period allowed for a temporary absence (normally one month)
16. As the older partner is over pension age they cannot claim UC and would also be unable to make a claim for pension age HB because they would still be treated as a couple under HB regulations. However, amendments made by SI 2019/935 to Article 7(2) of SI 2019/37 will allow the older partner to be treated as a single person, when under normal pension age HB regulations they would still be treated as a part of a couple.
17. The older partner can claim pension age HB and Pension Credit as a single claimant until the reason they are unable to claim UC as a couple no longer applies.
Paul, they are not a mixed age couple, they are both over pension age, the mix I referred to was immigration status, sorry for the confusion. does this make any difference to the advice ???
Hi Diogenes, if anything it makes things somewhat easier - the PC award passports to maximum HB award, so no separate assessment of capital/income for the latter.
thanks everyone, just need to get the LA to accept the HB claim now, I have advised against CTR claim