Housing Benefit on two ‘homes’ whilst in self referred residential re-hab

Hi all,

I have been asked a question which I think has no prospects but want to ask just in case:

Tenant claims HB on normal home in one LA.
Refers themselves into residential re-hab for 6 months, is liable for rent and claims HB on second ‘home’ in another LA.

I know 52wks temp absence medically approved care might have worked but thrown on the HB claim elsewhere and ‘normally occupied’.

Are there any circumstances where HB could be paid on both for up to 52 weeks?

With thanks.

I think the only chance of that is if each LA separately comes to a different view about which home is the normal home: if each regards the home in its area as the normal home and has no regard to anything the other Council has done, he could get lucky.

Just to be clear about what’s going on here: is he claiming HB for the residential rehab itself (so not a registered care home??), or has he rented somewhere else nearby to facilitate his attendance at rehab and it is that second rented property that he wants to claim for?

My feeling is that if he lived at Home 1 before the treatment and he is still going to be living there after the treatment ends, it is Home 1 he ought to get HB for (qualifies for 52 weeks’ temp absence as you say) and the difficult one from HB perspective is Home 2 (whether that is the rehab place or somewhere else nearby) because that’s not really where he lives.  But if the LA in whose area Home 2 is situated has taken the opposite view, well that’s up to them and as a matter of law has no bearing on any decision made by the council back in the Home 1 area.

Thank you @HBAnorak, will meet up with them next week and dig a little deeper.