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Discretionary Housing Payment?
I have a client who is subject to the maximum non dep deduction on her HB and CTB, for her adult sion who lives with her. He flatly refuses to tell benefits or the client how much he earns, but she does not think it is very much. She seems very reluctant to push it with him and my inkling is there may have been threats or even actual violence- but she has not specifically disclosed this at present. Apparantly he pays £25 per week board and won’t increase this, she says this barely covers his food never mind the shortfall in rent and council tax. She doesn’t want to ask him to leave as he has nowhere else to go.
Am i right in thinking there is nothing she can do about this other than ask him to leave / pay more / disclose his income to benefits? Would it be worth applying for a DHP to cover the shortfall - (I assume not but I don’t have much experience of DHPs).
DHPs CAN be used to cover non dependant deductions
Oh they can - that’s great! I’ll do an app with her then :-) the pessimist in me just thought they’d give it short shrift and tell her to ask him to supply his income details.
in the absence of details of incomleveles for a non dependant the LA may apply the highest non dep deduction ((£47.75pw) but when they do (if) they receive the actual income details they should return the difference
i beleive the LA should take into account what the likely income of the non dep is. so if you know roughly how many hours the non dep works if nothing else that may suggest a more reasonable deduction rate for them to appy
*editied for spelling
Oh they can - that’s great! I’ll do an app with her then :-) the pessimist in me just thought they’d give it short shrift and tell her to ask him to supply his income details.
it would certainly help if you point out that the non dep refuses to reveal info, and that you suspect there may be a threat of violence etc. however it may be more important to try to get them to apply a reasonable rate at the same time, if they arent already doing so0
are LAs able to check a person’s income level through a NiNo?
You should appeal the HB outcome decision also. Where a non-dep refuses to provide evidence of earnings the maximum deduction should not be applied as a matter of course. Anecdotal evidence can be taken and a reasonable assumption made. To be considered is the age of the person and the wage they are likely to attract, the type of work they do, the hours they work, the going rate for the job from comparisons with other employers of a similar type and size, the amount of the minimum wage. This list is illustrative not exhaustive. See CH/48/2006.