Reasonable request for evidence (Housing Benefit) 

Hi,

I’m working with a client who has had a non-dependent deduction deduction taken form their HB award. The client’s daughter oved out a couple of years ago. Client informed the LA over the phone and was advised to supply the non-dependent’s new tenancy agreement and council tax bill before they could be removed from the claim. The non-dependent was living with friends at the time so there is no evidence to provide.

Reg 86(1) of the HB regs 2006 states that the claimant must furnish evidence and information as my reasonably be required by the LA.

Am I able to argue that the the request for a tenancy agreement and council tax bill were unreasonable with the aim of getting the client a backdated payment for the non-dependent deductions?

If so, is there any case law?

Thanks

Did your client report the change in a timely manner - i.e. when her daughter moved out, or are you looking for a backdated payment after late reporting?

I’m assuming it’s the former, and in that case you’d only encounter difficulty if the LA had some reason to believe the daughter hadn’t moved out, and could thus justify their request for further evidence.

Thanks Va1der. Client is claiming they called the LA in time to report the change in circs and were told to send in the tenancy agreement and council tax bill

Whether the request is reasonable or not isn’t really material at this stage.

The LA has the power, as you identify, to request information and then if that information is not provided it has the ability under regs 13-14 D&A 2001 to suspend and terminate the award. If the LA had relied on that power, then you might have wished to appeal on the grounds that the underlying request for evidence which gave rise to the power to terminate was unreasonable.

However, in this case, when the evidence has not been provided it seems that the LA has left HB in payment and has just refused to supersede to remove the NDD. In the context of an appeal, your argument would not be “it was unreasonable for the council to ask for this evidence”, your argument would just be “The non-dep did in fact leave the property”. It would be for the judge to decide whether they accepted that or not.

But whichever way round you are looking at it, the difficulty seems to be that it is now a couple of years since the relevant decision was taken, so there is an issue in relation to the time limits for appeal to overcome.