Housing Benefit - treatment of a stipend

I am helping a Ukrainian lady who is over pension age.  She currently receives a stipend of around £3000 a month and has asked me about claiming Pension Credit.  I couldn’t find stipends specifically mentioned in any of the Pension Credit guidance so I shall tell her to try. 

However, I am now wondering about Housing Benefit which is not my area of expertise.  The stipend is paid by the British Academy and is described as being to “continue their research, enhance their skills and build long-lasting collaborative links with UK counterparts”.  Any advice or should I tell her to just try claiming?

Couldn’t say for sure but the stipend sounds a lot like earnings to me. Maybe make the PC claim and see what the decision is?

Without knowing the precise terms of the award, it looks to me given that the stipend is paid by the British Academy,  it has the nature of a research grant and may not be prescribed income under any of the provisions of Regulation 15 of the SPC Regs or Reg 29 of the HB(Persons of who have attained the qualifying age for SPC) Regs .(If the stipend were earnings it would be taxable income)

The stipend could therefore be disregarded completely for the purposes of pension credit, and if guarantee credit was awarded it would passport the claimant to HB in any case