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temporary absence rule
My client was in B&B getting HB , she had a couple of breaks as the room was pre-let to other customers, she stayed with a friend for a few days between her occupation of the B&B, the council say she has broken her claim and can’t re-claim HB, I argue for a temp absence but they say as she had no liability in the break periods the claim is closed, any chance to challenge this ??? cl was absent from 19 06 21 to 26 06 21 !!!
The temporary absence rules don’t help here. In order to get HB, you need to be living in the property and liable for rent for it. The temporary absence rules are a partial derogation from the rule that you need to be living in the property - but you still have the problem that your client wasn’t liable for rent in the B&B whilst he didn’t have a booking.
Possibly there could be something with closed period supersessions depending on when the actual decisions were made.
Thank you Eliot, I am not familiar with closed period supersessions, is this something new???
Thank you Eliot, I am not familiar with closed period supersessions, is this something new???
It just means a supersession which relates to a historical period of entitlement, but not to the current period.
A typical example is where somebody has some earnings in a week which take them out of HB entitlement. But HB don’t find out about it until a few weeks later; by which time the earnings have dropped again. So the decision of nil-entitlement will lead to an overpayment, but doesn’t end the claim.
So if your client didn’t report the change of circumstances at the time, and HB only found out after they were back in place, it could be treated as a closed period supersession.
I would also suggest looking at HBAnorak’s post in the other thread where you’ve posted this. If there was entitlement in a week then the HB couldn’t end until the following week. If there was entitlement in that week then it still couldn’t end. Effectively I think you need a whole HB week out of the B&B for the claim to have ended - so it may come down to what “stayed with a friend for a few days” means.
Thanks Timothy, that’s a great help, the worry is she was away for 7 clear days , I suspect my HB unit has not done alot of work on this issue so it will be a learning curve for me and them.
Is a clear break of 7 days fatal to having HB reinstated now ???