UC Housing costs v HB

My clients are joint tenants - one receives UC with HC the other is a pensioner on HB. There is a spare bedroom. DWP are reducing HC as a result, LA are reducing HB. I have requested MC of UC. my question is, in these circumstances which of my clients should end up with the reduction. I have little faith that DWP and LA will talk to each other

Are they social sector tenants or private tenants?

If they are social sector tenants, the bedroom tax should apply to neither case because:

- UC does not apply the bedroom tax in joint tenancies, and
- the HB claimant is a pensioner: there is no bedroom tax in pension-age HB

If they are private tenants, the problem is likely to be that their respective LHA rates do not cover the full rent.  If they are closely related, the chances are they have a common household, which could mean that the pensioner’s HB is based on the 2B LHA rate.  Is the working age claimant under 35?  if not, they would get the 1B s/c LHA rate i their UC and between the pair of them they’d have 1B + 2B which might well be enough to cover the full rent.

Need a bit more info to make an accurate guess at what is going on here

Thanks HB Anorak
They are LA tenants. 
Very helpful

In that case, UC are quite fond of applying non-dep deductions (“housing costs contributions”) for joint tenants, which is wrong of course but it could be what they’ve done.

On the HB side it might be the way the rent has been apportioned - I wonder if perhaps the younger tenant has other family members and the Council has gone for a 1/3 to 2/3 split?

It will be easier to get the Council to change their apportionment to match UC if that’s the case.  50/50 is very much the preferred split for UC.